L'Ambulance

I hadn't seen "The Ambulance" for quite awhile, but I had a good time re-visiting it and this was one of the first works I had seen of filmmaker Larry Cohen. It might not be one of Cohen's highly regarded pieces, but "The Ambulance" is a fun, gripping slice of paranoia with an injection of black humour. The concept is audaciously ludicrous and Eric Roberts' ham-fisted lead performance is full of energy (and lets not forget that hypnotic mullet when in motion), along with James Earl Jones small, but cynically meaty role as a rundown detective on the edge. Moving at a fast, uniformed tempo, Cohen's boldly tight direction never lets up (where he knows how to shoot on location for maximum effect) and his writing manages to stay one step ahead as you get pulled along for the dangerous ride with its engineered thrills. There always seems to be some sort of threat at every turn for Robert's character and this keeps it excitingly intense, if daftly over-the-top with comedic results. Especially its cheesy climax in a night club with some berserk ambulance driving and of course its irony-laced revelation that you won't see coming. Roberts' character sure didn't. The plot takes on a modern approach to its mad doctor formula, staying quite dark and full of mystery in the chase/or race to uncover the truth while also trying to convince people of the threat. Roberts' plays Josh Baker a comic book artist who one day goes about asking out the women of his dreams (a stunning Janine Turner) who he sees everyday out on the streets of New York. An incident sees her collapsing with Josh by her side and then a mysterious vintage ambulance appears and whisks her off. So he goes to one hospital after another with no such luck. He thinks there might just be more to it, as he uncovers and now he's running for his life with no one believing him there's a phantom ambulance kidnapping people. Eric Braeden is suitably clinical as "the doctor" that's behind the kidnappings and Megan Gallagher offers good support as a police officer we can trust. Red Buttons is enjoyably snappy and Cohen regular James Dixon shows up too.

Eric Roberts, sporting an impressive mullet, plays Marvel comic artist Josh Baker, who tries his luck with the beautiful stranger he sees every day on the way to work. Not one to take 'no' for an answer (making him a sexual predator by today's standards), he pursues the woman (Janine Turner), even buying her a Walkman from a street vendor (she throws it back at him: probably didn't have Megabass and auto-reverse). However, when the woman suddenly collapses in the street and Josh comes to her help, he learns a little more about her: she is diabetic and her name is Cheryl. An ambulance arrives and whisks her to hospital, or so it seems...

In reality, Cheryl has been kidnapped by human traffickers, who sell people with diabetes for medical experimentation. When Josh is unable to locate Cheryl at any of the local hospitals, he tries to find out what has happened to her, enlisting the help of grouchy New York detective Lt. Spencer (James Earl Jones), elderly newspaper reporter Elias Zacharai (Red Buttons), and pretty policewoman Sandra Malloy (Megan Gallagher)

Like most of director Larry Cohen's movies, The Ambulance is a quirky little B-movie, packed with offbeat performances, often bordering on the camp (Jones, gum in mouth, chews up the scenery and Roberts' mannerisms are strange, to say the least). The film's oddball approach and OTT acting help to make it an entertaining time-waster for fans of cult cinema, despite the somewhat off-putting nature of Josh's flowing locks (not surprised that Cheryl said 'no' to him; do you think Eric Roberts ever looks back at his work from this period and cringes?). Cohen keeps the action moving at a fair lick, with plenty of mystery and peril, and a particularly well-handled final act that features lots of dangerous looking stunt-work.

Of the six Cohen films I have seen so far (The Ambulance, Full Moon High, Special Effects, Q-The Winged Serpent, It's Alive, and The Stuff), this is easily my favourite. 6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for Stan Lee as Stan Lee - not much acting required, but at least it's not just a pointless blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo like in the MCU movies.

"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?

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.

More and more I love the work of writer/director Larry Cohen and I can only encourage people to check out his versatile imagination. "The Ambulance" is less ambitious, comical and outrageous than some of Cohen's more famous achievements (like "God Told me To", "It's Alive" or "Q – the Winged Serpent") but it definitely is a well-elaborated and entertaining B-movie. Once again, Cohen succeeds in turning a familiar and every-day topic into an exciting and rather suspenseful thriller. Inconspicuously and well organized, a group of fake nurses and doctors drive around New York in an old-type of ambulance, picking up diabetics that suffer from a 'sudden attack'. After they're brought into the cool conveyance, they disappear and no one ever hears from them again. The womanizing comic-book artist Josh Baker coincidentally stumbles upon this suspicious organization when a broad he's been stalking for a long time is taken away in front of him. His search for the girl results in a tense and involving movie, filled with ingenious plot-twists and adorably eccentric New York-characters. The screenplay is very clever, the dialogues are well written and there isn't a dull moment in the entire movie. 'The Ambulance' isn't a horror film so the deaths aren't as sadistic as in other Cohen films and there's also the lack of pungent social criticism. Still, this is a truly cool movie that deserves a wider audience. Judging by his performance here, I'd say it's unjust that Eric Roberts' career went to waste so badly. He looks a little goofy but his lines are exhilarating and his bad-boy charisma definitely works for the character he plays. Even more amusing are the supporting roles like, for example, James Earl Jones as the weird and over-stressed copper and Red Buttons as the persistent journalist. Check it out!