Ambulance
Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 8, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 55 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
21
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
92
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzApr 7, 2022
Ambulance is here to remind you of the head-spinning delights of watching a genuine cinematic madman at work. This is eye-popping, ear-splitting, guffaw-inducing stuff that makes Red Notice look like the dumpster juice it truly is. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Angelica Jade BastienApr 13, 2022
Ambulance, the latest from director Michael Bay, is a film powered by the jittery force of will and blissful confidence that comes with doing cocaine. Lots of cocaine. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineDom SinacolaApr 8, 2022
Though an ensemble of Angelenos fills out the film as it barrels to pretty much the only conclusion it could have, Ambulance is about as tidy as a Michael Bay film can get. Read full review
80
NMEPaul BradshawApr 1, 2022
Gyllenhaal clearly loves losing his mind as the nice-guy/bad-guy with a mad streak, and Abdul-Mateen grounds it all in some kind of sticky morality, but it’s González that holds the film together from the backseat. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeMar 25, 2022
At the risk of damning with the faintest praise, this is easily Bay’s best film in more than 25 years. Read full review
80
Little White LiesKambole CampbellMar 24, 2022
Ambulance is just delightfully unhinged in its experiment to see how much carnage can be caused by just one car chase. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 24, 2022
Speeding vehicles are clunked and donked into one another with xylophonic zeal, while the camera snakes and tears between them faster than seems physically possible. I mean it as a compliment when I say there are entire sequences here which look as if they might have been shot by a monkey in a jetpack. Read full review
75
UproxxMike RyanApr 15, 2022
Look, I’m not a scientist, but, again, chances are, during this movie, you will just run out of adrenaline. Your body will say, “sorry, tapped out, you’re on your own.” So my advice is you might want to pre-schedule in some time for a nap right after. Please make more movies with real stunts. Please make more movies like Ambulance. Read full review
75
UproxxVince ManciniApr 13, 2022
Exploitation has always been Bay’s foremost skill, and in this era when movies have begun to seem chintzy and distinctly unglorious, Bay’s talents as a hype man and product pornographer seem oddly refreshing. If anyone was going to make a mid-budget action movie feel like the biggest, coolest, sexiest thing in the world, it was Michael Bay. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 8, 2022
There’s enough variation and suspense, enough complication in the form of other characters with other concerns, that Ambulance stays fresh until the finish. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comKatie RifeApr 8, 2022
Bay’s latest, Ambulance, is a thick, juicy, hilariously overwrought, gloriously stupid steak upon which the vulgar auteurists of the world can feast. Read full review
75
Original-CinJim SlotekApr 7, 2022
With DNA largely spliced from the movie Speed, it’s a carnage-filled action film that is essentially a single extended car chase. Ambulance is a movie that is nothing if not focused. Read full review
75
The Film StageJordan RaupApr 6, 2022
While Bay’s frantic approach is a double-edged sword, delivering pure entertainment from the get-go while lacking in any particularly ingenious set piece, it’s a refreshing proposition to see him return to the basics of action filmmaking. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattApr 6, 2022
The violence is cartoonishly casual and the ending pure Hollywood corn. The absurdity, though, is the point: They're just two brothers on the run, and escape is what we came for. Read full review
75
Washington PostPat PaduaApr 6, 2022
So much of Ambulance works like a charm, but acting-wise, it could use a deeper bench. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJason BaileyApr 6, 2022
Ambulance is absolutely ridiculous, and undeniably entertaining. Read full review
75
ColliderRoss BonaimeApr 6, 2022
By cutting back and simply sticking to the thrills and the madness of this situation and little else, Bay has made one of his best films in decades. Read full review
70
The AtlanticDavid SimsApr 9, 2022
If you’re buying a ticket hoping for a honed piece of cinema, you may be disappointed. Ambulance is instead a strong entry in Bay’s maximalist canon, his best assault on the senses since his underrated 2013 comic thriller, Pain & Gain. Read full review
70
PolygonOli WelshApr 8, 2022
It’s stupid, exciting, unruly (with a 136-minute run time), and strangely refreshing. Read full review
70
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaApr 6, 2022
Ambulance is unlikely to convert those who loathe Michael Bay and all he creates. But if you're on board, you're in for one hell of a ride. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 24, 2022
For all its showy excesses, sophomoric humour and strained gravitas, Ambulance is often riveting, the film speeding along as recklessly as that ambulance. This popcorn thriller certainly is not brainy, but its escapism has a muscular precision. Read full review
67
Vanity FairRichard LawsonApr 7, 2022
Ambulance is a visual ordeal, but deliberately so. Bay wants us to feel the exhausted tension of his characters Read full review
67
ConsequenceJesse HassengerApr 6, 2022
Ambulance tightens the story’s frequent ridiculousness into genuine tension; it’s just retro enough to feel like an old-fashioned thriller done up with some newfangled tech that doesn’t choke the images with overly obvious CG. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 11, 2022
From the sluggish introduction to the chaotic heist scenes (which happen quickly and haphazardly), the first 45 minutes of Ambulance struggle to find any sort of rhythm. Once the protracted ambulance chase begins, the film is on firmer footing and viewers will recognize aspects of the familiar Speed template, but the movie never achieves anything more substantive than being impressive eye candy. After a while, it becomes more exhausting than exhilarating. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyApr 7, 2022
The movie is what it is: relentless, shameless, and purely as an exercise in technique almost dementedly skilled. A Bay explosion explodes, a Bay collision collides, and Ambulance has both in abundance. For some viewers, the result will be 2 hours and 16 minutes of movie heaven. It might make others want to call for an ambulance. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineDerek SmithApr 7, 2022
Rarely have Michael Bay’s frenzied stylistic tics been so effectively intertwined with the substance of one of his films. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleApr 6, 2022
Ambulance pines for a visceral, breezily violent style of film that doesn’t slow down to ask too many questions. And while Bay’s film wouldn’t stand up to too much inquiry — this is a movie where a ruptured spleen is treated with a hairpin — it’s hard to deny its escapist panache. Read full review
60
IGNRyan LestonJun 2, 2022
Ambulance may often be nonsensical, but it’s also the biggest, boldest action movie of the past year and a spectacularly raucous return to form by director Michael Bay. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiApr 13, 2022
While the film meanders for a bit and is longer than need be, it maintains a good balance between character dynamics and the thrill of the chase. And with a fantastic cast at its center, audiences will surely be entertained overall. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesJessica KiangApr 12, 2022
Ambulance is not good, exactly. Still it is an enjoyable, oddly inspiring reminder of how many more flavors not-good used to come in, in the olden days, back when we had the luxury of regarding Michael Bay’s brand of adrenalized, lobotomized moviemaking as a menace to blockbuster cinema, rather than — gulp — one of its potential saviors. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekApr 8, 2022
For a surprisingly solid stretch, Ambulance is great fun. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerApr 6, 2022
Bay is a dynamic visual storyteller, but he’s much better at the visual component than the actual storytelling. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 6, 2022
Bay’s virtuosic flouting of the laws of physics, probability and narrative coherence is meant to catapult you into a zone of sublimity where melodramatic emotion and adrenalized excitement fuse into a whole new kind of sensation. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellMar 28, 2022
It might be way too long and suffer from many familiar problems, but 'Ambulance' still has enough action-packed thrills in the tank to rank as Michael Bay's best movie in years. Read full review
60
Total FilmJamie GrahamMar 24, 2022
It’s a bonkers, ballistic, brain-numbing ride. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyMar 24, 2022
Ambulance is a purely aesthetic beast, made for those who like their films to look like they’ve been edited by someone in the middle of a panic attack. Read full review
60
EmpireJohn NugentMar 24, 2022
Michael Bay’s tribute to the emergency services (which involves blowing several of them up) is noisy, messy and frequently absurd — yet still somehow his most gleefully entertaining effort in at least a decade. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 18, 2022
Every Bay film is cheesy, but this one counts as high-speed cheese, grilled to the max by Danny’s thoughtful advice: “Just. Drive. Fast.” Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 8, 2022
What good is a movie that can’t stop moving, or screaming, long enough to pace itself? Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 7, 2022
In this action adventure, the apotheosis of his career thus far, cheerful idiocy occasionally rises to the level of delectable lunacy. For the most part, though, it’s entertainment as punishing paradox, a high-speed slog. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 6, 2022
Jake Gyllenhaal is an A-lister for a reason, but he gives a one-note, screaming performance here and is less than convincing as an unhinged psychopath who seems to have a death wish. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSarah JaneApr 6, 2022
Look, I can’t even pretend like Ambulance is great movie. I can’t even say it’s good, but, and it’s a really big but here, I can say for more than half of the run time, I was entertained. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 6, 2022
Ambulance is 80 minutes of pure mayhem wallowing through 140-150 minutes of pure Michael Bay hokum. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTodd GilchristApr 6, 2022
Ambulance is boilerplate Michael Bay, a thrill ride full of muscle and testosterone and style. Read full review
40
The New YorkerRichard BrodyApr 12, 2022
If the movie has any merit at all, it’s in the seemingly unintentional mockery of the conventions and styles of far more purposeful and intention-laden films. In its chaotic whirl of tinsel images, it thumbs its nose at the kind of plain realism that too often passes as synonymous with sincerity. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 5, 2022
At the core of the film, partially concealed by Bay’s posturing and swagger, is a bracing, slickly executed B-movie. Read full review
40
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)Mar 25, 2022
At an overlong two-hours-plus, Ambulance is Bay at his most masturbatory. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 23, 2022
For all the spectacular action set pieces, there’s something silly and tedious that sets in well before the two-hour mark. It flatlines. Read full review
30
Rolling StoneDavid FearApr 11, 2022
While we do not condone the excessive consumption of alcohol, or sneaking spirits and other such beverages into a theater, or any display of public intoxication, we also do not think you should endure Ambulance while being sober. Read full review
30
ABC NewsPeter TraversApr 8, 2022
If long, loud and ludicrous is your kind of movie escapism, check out director Michael Bay’s latest shot of adrenalized, de-humanized filmmaking as a psycho bank robber (Jake Gyllenhaal) commandeers an ambulance as a getaway car. Entertaining? Exhausting is more like it. Read full review
30
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 24, 2022
Ambulance is simply too much of a not-so-good thing. It never stops huffing and puffing to entertain you, but it’s joyless: a tale of escape that’s far from a great escape, because for all its motion it’s going through the motions. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMar 24, 2022
At a lean, mean 90 minutes or so, Ambulance might have been a guilty pleasure. Instead, it’s the sort of cinematic thrill ride so overstuffed that you can’t wait for it to be over. Read full review
30
TheWrapRobert AbeleMar 24, 2022
Even if you’ve been longing for a more grounded, gritty car-chase movie since the “Fast” franchise left physics behind ages ago, Bay’s addiction to confusion and pointlessness as operating visual/narrative principles keeps even this shoulda-been auto-pocalypse from being in any way pleasurable. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedApr 11, 2022
This is a director whose only interest is in entertainment without a trace of originality. He isn’t interested in quality, only in length, noise, and stale ideas from old movies. There’s plenty of all three in Ambulance. Read full review
25
IndieWireCarlos AguilarMar 24, 2022
Bay’s latest reeks of falsehood veiled as righteousness. Read full review
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