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‘Ambulance’ – Michael Bay’s Best Film in an Eternity

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Those of you who have read my review of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” know just how much of a simmering hatred I have for filmmaker Michael Bay. I walked out of that sequel so furious and angry to where I could never let myself sit through any of his films all the way through for over a decade. But with his latest action-packed spectacle, “Ambulance,” I could not help but be intrigued. Seeing two bank robbers desperately try to escape the police quickly brings to mind all of the Los Angeles car chases we keep seeing on the news with helicopters flying over a speeding vehicle being followed by several LAPD vehicles while news anchors comment on what we are seeing. Deep down, part of me roots for the pursued to escape as I honestly wonder if escape is even remotely possible for those hoping to evade the police when they have so much technology at their disposable to keep you in their sights.

Does “Ambulance” provide audiences with an accurate view of such a police chase? Well, no, but it does prove to be the best action film Bay has made in ages. Sure, many of the director’s flourishes are here such as quick editing, shots which swoop all over the place and characters yelling at each other while in close proximity to one another, but I could bear all of these things this time around with little in the way of argument. Sure, not everything we see go on here makes logical sense, but even I knew to leave my brain turned off when I entered the theater.

The movie opens up on war veteran Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as he tries to get his insurance to cover his wife Amy’s (Moses Ingram) much-needed surgery. But since this surgery is seen as “experimental,” the country he served to protect against all enemies foreign and domestic is not about to give him the $231,000 he needs for medical necessities. This should serve as a reminder of how politicians tend to stop saying “support the troops” when the war comes to an end. Lord knows our support for them should never stop there.

Desperate for help, Will turns to his adoptive brother, Danny Sharp (Jake Gyllenhaal), for a loan. The only thing is, Will is meeting up with Danny on the day he and his grungy cohorts are going to rob a bank of $32 million dollars, an amount Jeff Bezos would refer to as pocket change. Against his better judgment, Will goes along with Danny, perhaps out of a need to protect his brother among other things. But like all bank heists which are planned down to include every exact detail such as knowing when the police will arrive, acquiring the biggest and nastiest assault weapons, being aware of security cameras, observing the habits of the bank’s loyal employees and knowing where all the best escape routes are, it all goes horribly wrong. Then again, if everything went right, there would be no movie.

Will and Danny end up hijacking an ambulance, toss out its driver, and make their way out of downtown Los Angeles in the hopes of getting away with something God would not approve of in the slightest. However, they have a couple of guests in their midst which include emergency medical technician (EMT) Cam Thompson (Eiza González), and she is furiously trying to save the life of LAPD Officer Zach (Jackson White) who has just suffered a serious gunshot wound to his leg. Who shot him? Just watch the movie.

From there, “Ambulance” becomes one long chase as Will and Danny race through the streets of Los Angeles with sirens blaring as they seek to escape the cops and FBI agents who are right on their tail. As I watched Bay’s camera swoop all over the place, I wondered when rush hour traffic was going to start settling in. Certain characters like Captain Monroe (Garret Dillahunt) keep saying the city is about to hit rush hour, but it never does. Also, I kept waiting for the scene where Will and Danny realize their gas tank is almost empty, but it never came up. Do ambulances really get great gas mileage? Inquiring minds want to know.

But regardless of these questions, nothing could take away from my enjoyment of “Ambulance” which is the kind of action movie I feel I have not seen in some time: an exhausting action spectacle that piles one conflict on top of another and leaves you completely wrung out by the time the end credits start rolling. For Bay, this puts him right back in “The Rock” territory as the loud gunfights and explosions never overwhelm the actors and the characters they play, and it is their predicament that keeps us emotionally tuned into the action.

It’s a gas watching Gyllenhaal here as he looks to be channeling his inner Nicolas Cage. Seeing him go all bug-eyed while wearing a mask was almost worth the price of admission as I was laughing my ass off. Whether you find his performance among his best or worst ever, there’s no dying he’s as entertaining to watch here as Cage was in “The Rock,” and it is abundantly clear to me he gave at least 115% of his energy to this role.

Abdul-Manteen has proven to be a solid actor with his work in “Us,” “Aquaman” and “The Matrix Resurrections,” and he gives “Ambulance” the emotional center it needs. While his character of Will makes one questionable choice after another, the actor inhabits the role with passion and intense energy as he shows how Will is so in over his head here and trying to make things as right as he can.

As for Eiza González, she gives Cam a great introduction as she works to save a young girl who has been impaled by a metal object, and then makes it clear to her ever so naïve partner how important it is to keep an emotional distance from the patient in order to be an efficient EMT. Still, we know her work ethic will eventually be tested in an extreme way as she is forced to do the seemingly impossible to keep her patient, the wounded cop, alive. Watching her here reminds me of Jack Bauer’s last scene in season three of “24” as even he could not hold back the emotion which was overwhelming him.

And yes, Bay still has yet to meet a tripod he could truly fall in love with, but in spite of the cameras flying all over the place, I never got the slightest amount of motion sickness while watching “Ambulance.” Furthermore, I must add I had a full dinner of flank steak and a Roma tomato before driving out to the theater, and this is not the kind of motion picture you want to watch on a full stomach. But I did, and I am still in one piece.

Am I being a bot over effusive in my praise of “Ambulance?” Perhaps, but this is the first Michael Bay film I watched in years which I found myself applauding once the end credits began. The last one I did that for was “Armageddon,” and I don’t care what you say because it is part of the Criterion Collection for a reason. This film brings the filmmaker back to form after he got suckered into making one “Transformer” sequel too many (even he admits that), and I had no problem telling the good guys from the bad ones this time around. Here’s hoping his next films will be as good.

* * * ½ out of * * * *

Capone Aims For Greatness But Instead Becomes a Real Mess

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Al Capone was an American gangster and businessman who became a notorious crime boss during the Prohibition Era, and he has long since become a major figure in popular culture. Many actors have portrayed him over the years like Robert De Niro, Rod Steiger, Jason Robards, Ben Gazzara, Ray Sharkey, William Forsythe and F. Murray Abraham to name a few, and it certainly is a juicy role for any actor to take on as he became a character Shakespeare would have been proud to write about. The great Tom Hardy is now the latest to play him in Josh Trank’s biographical film “Capone,” one of the many films meant to be released in theaters but, because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, is instead making its debut on VOD. Whether or not it deserves this particular fate will depend on what you think about the finished product, and this one does come with a lot of baggage.

Whereas many films about Capone focus on his time as a feared crime boss, this one looks at his final year of existence. “Capone” starts off informing the audience of how the famed gangster was sentenced to prison on October 17, 1931 for tax evasion and released a decade later when he was no longer deemed a threat to society. When we first see him here, he is living in Florida with his family and close friends, and we see he is also afflicted with neurosyphilis and dementia which deeply affects the way he sees reality.

Before I go on, I should point out what neurosyphilis really is. According to Wikipedia, it is an infection of the central nervous system which can occur at any age, and “Capone” looks to illustrate how bad this disease can get. While the man is resting in retirement in Palm Island, Florida, his mind is quickly rotting away to where he begins suffering from hallucinations and loses control over his bodily functions. This results in him suffering from some embarrassing situations no one would ever want to be caught in, and I wondered how long he would allow himself to endure such unbearable torture.

I have seen Capone portrayed in many movies like “The Untouchables,” “Road to Perdition” (albeit in a deleted scene), “Mobsters” and “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” to where I feel lI know all there is to know about him. With “Capone,” I got to see another chapter which of his life which I was not as familiar with. It may not be as cinematic a story as his days as a feared crime boss, but it does provide us with a different look at a gangster when his mental capacities were fading rapidly. I also cannot think of a single film which has dealt with syphilis this intimately or in depth. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I want to. The word syphilis is an icky word even when you don’t know its meaning.

But as “Capone” goes on, I kept wondering what everyone here was trying to accomplish. Some filmmakers prefer not to spell out the meaning of their movies, and that’s fine. When it comes to this one, however, I am at a loss because everything becomes a huge mess long before the end credits. The filmmakers go only so deep into the gangster’s addled brain, or what’s left of it, and what we are left with is a lot of unpleasantness and a screenplay which could have used a lot more depth. What exactly was the point of showing us all of this? To make us understand how bad any kind of syphilis is? To see if Capone is worthy of forgiveness and redemption. A lot of questions are brought up, but I never found any satisfying answers.

The big draw here is obviously Tom Hardy, and I am prepared to see him in anything and everything. From a distance, he looks to be the perfect actor for this role having portrayed such villainous figures in “Bronson” and “The Dark Knight Rises.” But while he certainly has inhabited Capone as much as an actor can physically, his performance here is deeply flawed as he more often than not slips into caricature which sucks all the naturalism out of what I thought would be a fully formed character. This is especially the case when you take into account how his co-stars Linda Cardellini, Matt Dillon, Kyle MacLachlan and Kathrine Narducci slip into their roles so easily to where I never caught them acting. Basically, everyone seems to be on the same wavelength except Hardy who appears to be acting in a completely different film, and his bombastic portrayal is a shock considering what a reliable actor he usually is.

But when it comes to “Capone,” the person everyone has their eyes on is writer and director Josh Trank. Back in 2012, he made his big Hollywood breakthrough with “Chronicle,” a found-footage thriller which smartly transcended its genre and provided a huge boost to the careers of Michael B. Jordan and Dane DeHaan. Then he followed it up with the “Fantastic Four” reboot which rode a tidal wave of bad press all the way up to its opening, and quickly became a critical and commercial disaster which must have had a devastating effect on him. Thanks to this nightmarish reception, and to Trank’s tweet about there being a better version of the film which may never see the light of day, he looked to be forever consigned to director jail along with other filmmakers who blew their big chance at a long-lasting career. Still, we all love a comeback, and “Capone” certainly looked like it would wipe away the stench from the rare comic book/superhero movie flop.

I certainly wanted “Capone” to be a success for Trank, but while his filmmaking skills have improved, his screenplay is full of elements which never gel into a satisfying or cohesive whole. It is tempting to believe he relates to Capone’s hellish last year as it threatens to be quite similar to the battles he had with studio executives over “Fantastic Four” as the gangster deals endlessly with paranoia over paparazzi hiding in the bushes and of people he believes may be out to kill him. But when the film finally ends, I came out of it unsure what to think. In his attempts to continually go against the Hollywood grain, Trank instead alienates any audience this film hopes to have as he becomes more interested in rubbing our faces in Capone’s diseased state of mind instead of creating a truly compelling narrative.

Well, Hardy will certainly rebound from this misfire sooner rather than later. As for Trank, there’s always a chance at another comeback. I just hope that next time he works harder at creating a motion picture which is not so much anti-Hollywood, but one which transcends another genre the way “Chronicle” did. “Capone” certainly provides us with a unique look at one of America’s best-known gangsters, but when its all over, I could not help but wonder if it was a story worth telling.

* * out of * * * *