After dabbling in the streaming format with the Ryan Reynolds-led action flick “6 Underground” for Netflix, director Michael Bay is heading back to theaters. In his new crime thriller “Ambulance,” the action junkie has assembled a cast consisting of Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy-winner Yahya Abdul-Matten II, and Eiza Gonzalez. However, the filmmaker has gotten a little unpromptedly candid about the film’s digital special effects and shat on the VFX team and craftspeople that worked on the movie in the process.
Bay recently spoke with European cinema chain Les Cinémas Pathé Gaumont (via Variety) and revealed his displeasure with the shots that featured CGI effects.
“All those explosions and cars flipping, that’s all real,” Bay said before, perhaps getting a little too honest about it all eventually. “That’s all live, real, ratchets. It looks very dangerous [and] it could be very dangerous if you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. Most of it is real stunts. There’s very few bluescreen shots in the movie. There’s not a lot of CGI. Some of the CGI is shit in this movie. There’s a couple shots that I wasn’t happy with, okay? Alright.”
By all accounts, Bay is said to be a perfectionist during a shoot, and that has led to tension between himself and the cast/crew. Some have suggested that Bay purposefully makes himself the “bad guy” to help avoid conflicts or in-fighting within departments. Then again, he’s not going to get everything they want at all times, and the quality of visual effects is also subjected to time/money. A movie like “Ambulance” isn’t necessarily getting the ILM-level team as his “Transformers” movies, which are considered some of the stronger examples of well-crafted digital effects, as the effects budgets are radically different. Either way, as a director, you’re expected to be a leader and one who brings large groups of people together under one vision. Thus sh*tting on any one department publicly like that is not a well-advised move and certainly isn’t going to change your reputation as a taskmaster with little empathy for important craftspeople (members of the VFX community are already beginning to speak out on Twitter, though some key tweets have already been deleted).
Here’s the “Ambulance” synopsis, but the short version is a very fast-paced Michael Bay thriller with lots of explosions and stunts.
Decorated veteran Will Sharp, desperate for money to cover his wife’s medical bills, asks for help from the one person he knows he shouldn’t—his adoptive brother Danny. A charismatic career criminal, Danny instead offers him a score: the biggest bank heist in Los Angeles history: $32 million. With his wife’s survival on the line, Will can’t say no. But when their getaway goes spectacularly wrong, the desperate brothers hijack an ambulance with a wounded cop clinging to life and ace EMT Cam Thompson onboard. In a high-speed pursuit that never stops, Will and Danny must evade a massive, city-wide law enforcement response, keep their hostages alive, and somehow try not to kill each other, all while executing the most insane escape L.A. has ever seen.
“Ambulance” releases in theaters on April 8.