Parents' Guide to Ambulance

A typically over-the-top Michael Bay production, this exhausting, far too long action movie still surprisingly passes muster with its batch of colorful, likable characters and wiry sense of humor. With the bulk of the movie's running time following the ambulance racing through city streets while pursued by cops, as well as multiple crashes and shoot-outs, Ambulance certainly could have benefited from some tightening. One of the biggest twists -- a plan to use decoys to finally evade the police -- takes a very long time from conception to execution, and a good deal of momentum is lost along the way. Plus, it's just hard to be constantly gripping your armrests for that long.

Additionally, Bay's pointless, show-offy camerawork, with daredevil swoops from bizarre, impossible angles, may cause headaches. Even so, Ambulance has so many quirky touches -- and such an appealingly strange sense of humor -- that moments like a desperate, ruthlessly gory life-saving operation or a break to listen to a little Christopher Cross are irresistible. Gyllenhaal, especially, is at the top of his game, as manic and zany here as he was in Bong Joon-ho's Okja, barking one-liners in a way that suggests he's really enjoying all this. His enthusiasm seems to lift up co-stars Abdul-Mateen and González, and they feed on his energy. A fine use of Los Angeles locations and backdrops completes the picture, ultimately making this a not bad big-screen offering.