Pull a fast one
Cert 15 ★★★★ In cinemas now
Some of us baked bread, others unwound to the BBC’s 1980s art teacher Bob Ross. But for Transformers director Michael Bay, lockdown was an opportunity.
With the streets of California eerily silent, he decided to plan a remake of an obscure Danish thriller about two bank robber brothers who hijack an ambulance.
Then he injected it with adrenaline, blasted it with a defibrillator and turned it into a relentless car chase through the streets of Los Angeles.
The result is pretty much what you expect – a thrill ride that doesn’t take its foot off the gas for a second. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Will Sharp, an unemployed war hero who visits the hideout of his adoptive brother, bank robber Danny ( Jake Gyllenhaal).
Turns out this is a bad day to ask for a loan to pay for his wife’s operation. Danny is moments away from embarking on a $32million bank robbery with his heavily armed gang. After a bit of shouting, Will agrees to take part in the remarkably easy heist, where they find the money conveniently piled up on a table.
But then it all goes crazily wrong – the lads shoot a cop and commandeer the ambulance that has been sent to rescue him. As they are chased by the entire Los Angeles police department, feisty paramedic Cam Thompson (Eiza Gonzalez) is in the back trying to keep the policeman alive.
This is very much Michael Bay’s Ambulance (he claims he hasn’t watched the original) and all his trademarks are here – whirling cameras, a bombastic score and cheesy dialogue.
You may find yourself rolling your eyes and covering your ears. But, beneath all the screeching brakes and explosions, you might also hear your heart pumping surprisingly hard against your chest.
It’s a thrill ride that doesn’t take its foot off the gas for one second