No. 29 (2022) AMBULANCE April 5th.

 

Film No. 29  (2022)  April 5th.  6:45 PM  EVENT CINEMAS,  VMax 1   Whitfords.

"Does your wife know you rob banks?" (Paramedic Cam asks a pertinent question of her new ally, Will. A question that makes him feel particularly vulnerable).

I have a list of mates who are just going to love AMBULANCE. They won't have to think. They can strap themselves in and escape into a world where their post pandemic thoughts abate for 135 minutes as they go on an adrenaline trip. For them it's the reason they love to go and see big screen cinema. I will text them and recommend it, but there are other friends to whom, if asked, I will suggest that they should not waist their time or money!. It's a loud, chaotic, messy of a film!

Most importantly, if you are a Jake G fan, and I am, definitely don't go to see it. Michael Bay (TRANSFORMERS, ARMAGEDDON) has never paid too much attention to what his actors might be able to bring to the screen. So why, I mean why with a capital W does Michael Bay take a small Danish film AMBULANCEN; a film of 80 minutes, with a big heart, and turn it into a story that, if it were true, would rate as the biggest bank heist, come murder mayhem ever committed in the history of the world? 

If the script has a redeeming feature then paramedic Cam Thompson, astutely played by Eiza Gonzalez (a Jolie lookalike), comes away with a beating heart (no pun intended). She may not have entered this chaotic mix-master of chaos as the key player, but she exits as the star. Her  transition into a make-shift emergency trauma surgeon(via zoom instruction), is a minor highlight. 

Look, Bay has tried to capture the violent choreographic essence of JOHN WICK, the tarmac tenseness of SPEED, the brotherly love trope of WARRIOR and a final stanza reminiscent of any of Angelina Jolie's action efforts. I'm looking for something more original. Plenty of punters will line up for AMBULANCE, popcorn and choc-top in hand, brain (and phone) in flight mode. I hope they love it, I didn't.  5GUMS.