Ambulancen

A quite uninteresting movie.

Two criminals uses a ambulance as their escape vehicle. Of course this ambulance keeps an important role throughout the movie.

This movie reminds a lot of the whole bunch of action comedies, that Denmark has produced in the last six-seven years. There is almost nothing new in this one. Just the fact that Thomas Bo Larsen once again plays a bad criminal says a lot about the lack of originality in this movie.

The movie is actually quite short. Aprox. 1 hour and 15 minutes. But since the movie was very uninteresting, I was quite pleased that it was not any longer.

I give it four out of ten.

This film is made on a concept that it's done after certain set of rules, just like the dogma rules was back in the nineties. The rules of the ride has been described as: The entire film must take place in only one location; an ambulance, the story has to be shot in real time and there should be only 4 persons we get to know.

If this is right, then there is a couple of minor breaches of the rules, but never mind. This is a psychological thriller about two brothers which robs a bank to be able to get their mother to alternative cancer treatment. The older is a criminal, but still doesn't want the younger to become one. Things go wrong, and on the flight from the bank they have to steal a car, which happens to be an ambulance on mission.

The idea is good, the effects are excellent, the filming is both and asa whole the film is interesting, yet I must say I wasn't really fond of any of the persons. That's a main rule when it comes to a thriller like this. The actors are good, and if we got to like the two main persons, the brothers, it would be a whole different story. The problem is that they are too unlikeable. When the film tries to establish this, it's too late. I'm also not too sure if I like the concept of going inside the body of the hear patient. I'm not sure if I get the effect of this, and that it helps the film's dramatization.

If you're able to get past this, it's an OK film to watch.

It left me breathless! I was hanging off the edge of my seat for the entire film and covering my eyes continuously! The Ambulance is full of nerve-wrecking action - but I must say that my expectations were not met entirely on the comic aspects! After having seen the trailer and chosen to see this film on account of it being an action comedy - I was a little disappointed! In retrospect I think this is due to poor marketing - leading the audience to believe one thing but delivering another! It really IS a good film - it has many layers and was even touching - but when you are mislead in the marketing department you are bound to have some unsatisfied customers! So see this film with new eyes - definitely action - but more drama than comedy (not that it doesn't have some brilliant humor from time to time) - and judge for yourself!

Thomas Bo Larsen displays yet another character as an imbecile criminal from Copenhagen. The movie doesn't bring anything new to the Danish movies and he's seen in this role dozens of times before. The action scenes are not many and not so entertaining at all. It simply needs action to have at least something worth seeing.

The best scene of the film is the opening scene from whereon everything goes wrong.

It's hard to see what the movie wants to contribute with. After I saw it I felt a bit of having wasted my own time on it. The twists the movie tries to give are way to easy to predict.

The whole plot of the movie is way better on paper that on film.

Two brothers rob a bank to have enough money to get their cancer-ridden mother to a private clinic in Germany, where she could possibly be saved. So it's a noble course for the crime and the subsequent chase of the ambulance the two brothers take hostage during their escape. But is it okay to endanger the life the stroke patient and the female intern for their course? - The trailer for this film suggests it to be an action comedy - where in fact the film really never decides whether it wants to be a family-drama, a witty comedy or an action flick. The idea to limit the film to the ambulance and it's four persons is interesting but ultimately it also limits the characterization of the main protagonists. You'll have to take their work for their ambitions, their life-stories and their motives. Which sometimes does not really work - at least for me. The action is marvelous - in my opinion, the filmmakers should have sticked to straight drama and/or thrilling action. The comedy did take a bit of the intended impact. (P.S.: Extremely nice bleeding effects - VERY convincing. Nope, it does not really matter in the context of the film - but struck me heavy when I watched the DVD. Oh yeah - there is a DVD with English subtitles available in Danmark - see laserdisken.dk for example.)