L'Ambulance

"The Ambulance" is not really a "black comedy", although it does have moments of dark humor throughout. It really is sort of a hybrid comedy-suspense film. Eric Roberts carries things as the perplexed wannabe lover boy, while James Earl Jones comes and goes as a perplexed, somewhat irrational police detective. The movie is not overall terrific, but there are some memorable scenes, especially relating to the ambulance itself. Overall for a B movie, "The Ambulance" delivers enough entertainment value to recommend seeing it, however I doubt multiple viewings would be that rewarding. .......................... - MERK

The Ambulance actually turned out to be a pretty funny, yet bizarre thriller. Sarcastic extrovert, Josh Baker (Eric Roberts in a hilarious role), probably regrets the day he talked to a woman that he felt compelled to introduce himself to, having always seen her on his lunch break. The woman, a diabetic, suddenly collapses in the street, and he is there as she is carried away in a hearse-turned-ambulance with a mysterious green glowing light in the back. She gets in the ambulance, and as Josh later discovers, she never arrives at any of the local hospitals.

Josh is convinced something is awry, but doesn't pay too much attention to it at first (in fact, as bizarre as the story becomes, he's so matter-of-fact about everything. Him and everyone else). The more people he confronts about the strange ambulance that conveniently seems to arrive when he's talking to them but never seems to be around when he needs to prove it exists, the more likely those people are going to wind up dead because of the ambulance (actually, because of the people driving it, who are the goons for a strange doctor who is using his victims for a strange medical experiment).

Josh's only hope, besides himself (a guy who will soon be quite immune to pain as he gets hit by cars, jumps through barred doors, is drugged, and finally beat by a junkyard gang), is the red head cop Sandra Malloy who turns up after her boss, Spencer (James Earl Jones in an even funnier part as the disbeliever), turns up missing. And if they don't act fast, the ambulance will show up for them, and the only chance of stopping it will be lost.

All in all, the story is bizarre, but the movie is much more of a comedy than a thriller in sort of that 'After Hours' style of comedy. Josh appears to be absolutely crazy to those around him, babbling about some weird ambulance that is out to murder people. But he seems to dismiss the seriousness of it, just hoping to save the girl and get through the day, and not much else. Eric Roberts and Red Buttons, too, made a good team, albeit a brief one with Red Buttons as Elias Zacharai, the fast-talking newspaper reporter who befriends Josh and has similar convictions about the hospital staff trying to drug up patients and keep them against his will, but in that senile old man kind of way. He plays the reporter that wants the exclusive story on the ambulance.

Loosen up and give it a try. Though cheap, it's got some good action sequences, a decent plot, and is just overall, pretty funny. Except, for maybe the ending. It was just too easy.

"The ambulance" is perhaps not what people call a great movie.But it's sure much fun to watch!Its black humor is priceless.All the male actors overplay,Eric Roberts ,James Earl Jones and Eric Braeden camp it up and give the viewer the feeling of watching a cartoon (Roberts' escape from the ambulance) or reading a comic strip :anyway ,Roberts makes comic books ("They are not what they used to be "says cop Jones ).The director knows only one tempo:accelerated and ,for lack of subtlety ,there's never a dull moment.And the villain (Braeden) does believe he works for the greater good of humanity !And anyway won't his patient be in perfect health when he dies?

My review was written in December 1990 after watching the film at a Manhattan screening room.

"The Ambulance" is a wild thriller laced with black humor. Entertaining exercise in urban paranoia will be shown at the Avoriaz fantasy film festival in France and gives Triumph Films a genuine sleeper for 1991 domestic release.

As with his recent "Maniac Cop" pics, filmmaker Larry Cohen works with the inversion principle: taking a symbol of rescue, a vintage red ambulance, and making its appearance and siren fearful. Here he tilts the balance toward humor, though hair-raising stents and sudden moments of violence teem.

Eric Roberts introduces the film as sort of a day in the life of James Toback ("The Pick Up Artist" helmer). In telephoto shots on Manhattan streets (apparently using real-life people as extras), he tries to pick up beautiful Janine Turner.

As she valiantly gives him the brush-off, she suddenly faints, and a sinister ambulance, controlled by the film's heavy Eric Braeden, whisks the diabetic girl to a hospital. After work, Robets tries to find her and, as the film's shooting title suggested, she's vanished "Into Thin Air".

With fast repartee and a gallery of quirky characters spurring the tale along, Roberts continues his search but finds little help from the disbelieving police inspector James Earl Jones. His paranoia increases in quantum leaps as mad scientist Braeden's henchmen start eliminating people around him and give Roberts a frightening ambulance ride.

Help finally surfaces in unlikely sidekick Red Buttons, an aging New York Post reporter Roberts rooms with at the hospital. Jons' pretty assistant on the force, Megan Gallagher, is another kindred spirit leading to an exciting climax atg a downtown dance club where Braeden keeps his kidnap victims upstairs as medical experiments.

With unpredictable plot twists coming fast and furious, this fresh approach to the thriller format is especially of interest to genre fans. Real-life Marvel Comics exec Stan Lee has a nice guest role playing himself as Roberts' boss, and the comic book backdrop is used effectively as Roberts draws large panels of Turner and the ambulance to aid his investigation.

Cohen puts a sting in this tale with a delightful false ending that trumps the "Carrie" finish tacked onto nearly every horror film of recent vintage.

Reteamed here with Jones shortly after they filmed "Best of the Bet" two years ago, Roberts is perfectly cast. His familiar abrasiveness ("Star 80", "The Pope of Greenwich Village") is used to good advantage.

Jones is a hoot as the gum-chewing cop whose know-it-all attitude gets him in trouble. Buttons steals his scenes in his best film assignment since "The Poseidon Adventure".

Following up on her tv policewoman duty on the defunct series "Hill Street Blues", Gallagher is a big-screen find as the tough cop who believes in Roberts. Turner, adopting a different look with long, dark hair here, develops considerable sympathy in her brief assignment. Supporting cast is solid, including Richard Bright (of "The Godfather Part III") as a no-nonsense cop and Braeden, inverting his messianic scientist role of Dr. Forbin, memorable to genre fans in the classic: "Colossus: The Forbin Project".

Tech credits exploit the NYC terrain well, especially Spiro Razatos' unusual chases and stunt work.

Larry Cohen has not been known for coherence in his pictures. As a writer, he is often excellent with creative twists and turns for every story. As a director, he is often sloppy and mostly leaves you disappointed, thinking that a great opportunity has been lost. In his movies major characters disappear without explaination and whole chunks of plot often seem to be missing. All the while you are thinking "what a shame on such a good story!". To my surprise, I found that "Ambulance" actually is held together quite neatly. No chop-chop editing this time. The plot runs amok here and there, but not damagingly so. It is amusing and suspenseful with spunky performances by Gallagher and Roberts and a really good one by Red Buttons. Some effort have been put into the action sequences and interiors. This movie, unlike many other Cohen-directed, actually looks like it had a budget. The pace never flags and even if the ending is no great shakes, it's satisfying. Nice score too.