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(The author is Yunzi, special commentator of Litchi News, film critic, executive producer, director of Jiangsu Film and Television Critics Society; this article is an exclusive manuscript of Litchi News mobile phone client and Litchi Network, please indicate the source when reprinting.) ）
Outlaw Is an latest film by Transformers director Michael Bay. The crazy energy of this movie spews out, as if to explode the emotions of Hollywood action movies that have been suppressed by the epidemic for two years.
Like any Transformers film, this film is a film that puts the audience's satisfaction above physical common sense and character building. The film may have cost a fraction of the cost of "Transformers," but the director's fascination with "small scenes must also be big" has not diminished, and he has glued every shot, impact, explosion and soundtrack into a violent symphony.
Michael Bay's films have always been known for their simplicity, brutality, and superficiality, but now, in an era of severe homogenization of Marvel movies, this unique and vigorous style seems to have been revived. In Outlaw Ambulance, the extremely fanatical masculinity and clear story lines allow it to avoid the narrative desolation of Transformers and the distortion of the special effects of Fast and Furious. The story of two bank robbers hijacking an ambulance effectively fills the two-hour space.
"Death Ambulance" is a deep processing of the 2005 Danish film of the same name, and the localization transformation is also very careful. Marine Corps veterinarian Will applies for insurance for his wife, but is refused by the insurance company, and he asks his brother Daniel for financial assistance, but is pulled into a project that goes all the way to the black - robbing the bank. In the process of committing the crime, the rookie police officer is unfortunately injured, and the ambulance of the first responder Carman arrives at the scene, but is hijacked by Daniel and Will, and a chase war begins.
The three characters in the film show top professionalism, the first responder Carman is kind and tenacious, Will is misguided and compassionate, and Daniel is manic, arrogant, domineering, and full of tragedy. The entire film crams these characters into the city's road network at a very fast speed, and compared to the exaggerated spectacle of "Fast and Furious", the film highlights the sense of realism and scene. The director is still confident, mentioning his classics "Jedi X-Men" and "Brave to Die Island" in the film.
Rows of palm trees reflect from the car's windshield, sunlight gleams on police badges, sparks splash in the air when rescuers rescue young children... All of this makes people recognize at a glance that this is Michael Bay's movie.
It's an unbridled traversal show — a pervasive drone that's like a tireless perpetual motion machine that flips, spins, slides through the city. These vertigo-exploding images provide a circular perspective in the air that reinforces visual tension. But the result of abuse is ineffective, every close-up and gorgeous surrounding panorama, does not seem to create a feeling of rapid heartbeat, on the contrary, the intensity of the whirlwind of the show has been too much to make people uncomfortable, and even cause vomiting. In this regard, Michael Bay should be responsible for his arrogance and self-conceit.
The "ambulance" in the film does not appear until nearly 40 minutes into the film, and Elsa Gonzalez plays Carman, an emergency doctor, who is one of the few female characters with distinct personality characteristics in Michael Bay's films - here Carman is independent, rugged, serious, gentle when tough, brave when weak, impressive.
There is a view in North American critics that the black male protagonist Will is too stupid because he is willing to rob a bank and shoot a policeman as a Marine. In fact, the highlight of the film is that the treatment at the end of the story is largely a reflection on the death of black Americans who were crushed to death by kneeling, and most people prefer to believe that the world is not so bad after all.
The only big star in the film is Jack Gyllenhaal, who plays Daniel. Jack's insane performance is as accurate and glamorous as ever. However, due to the lack of digging of the script, daniel, who he played, did not become Robert De Niro in "The Wire of Fire". You know, it's very tough to get the audience to really fall in love with a villain.
"Outlaw Ambulance" is extremely noisy and flashy, and it does not prevent it from becoming a commercial film that current audiences need. At a time when action movies have been missing for a long time, this "pediatric" movie is actually more comfortable than the look and feel of "Transformers".