Ambulance Is Bay's Best Movie In 9 Years - Why Is Its Box Office So Bad?
Ambulance is director Michael Bay’s best movie since 2013’s Pain & Gain—so why isn't the action thriller performing well at the box office? A funny thing happened to legendary action director Michael Bay over the past two decades. When Bay first came to prominence as a helmer, his work received mixed reviews, as critics dubbed The Rock and Armageddon mindless guilty pleasures, while criticizingPearl Harbor for being overlong and melodramatic.
However, the 00s saw Bay’s critical reception shift as his movies grew progressively more popular with audiences and his style grew more distinctive. By the late 00s, even casual movie fans were familiar with “Bayhem,” Michael Bay’s unique brand of high-octane action sequences. Hits like Bad Boys II and Transformers cemented Bay’s status as the reigning king of the big budget action genre but, while the likes of Hot Fuzz and Robot Chicken affectionately spoofed this phenomenon, Bay's box office success never translated to much in the way of mainstream critical approval.
Related: Ambulance Ending Explained (In Detail)
That changed in 2013 when Bay released the smaller crime thriller Pain & Gain. A surreal, offbeat true-crime story, Pain & Gain saw Bay bring his high-tech pyrotechnics to a more intimate brand of action movie and the results were praised by many critics (although some reviewers still found the movie’s brash, in-your-face style obnoxious). Now, 2022’s Ambulance sees Candyman reboot star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jake Gyllenhall star in another Bay effort that has earned critical acclaim, but this action thriller’s box office reception has been comparatively terrible. Ambulance is the best use of Bay’s unique skill set since Pain & Gain—and arguably even since
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