Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning was an awakening for me. If you’ve delayed checking it out, now’s your chance.Īs I wrote when it was added to HBO Max in July: Regular Polygon readers will know this is one of my favorite movies of all time (seriously, top 10-type stuff). Swayze, Reeves, and Lori Petty are all excellent in their respective roles - and the three trained intensely with a former pro surfer to pull off some of the things they have to do with this movie, leading to some incredibly memorable action sequences aided by beautiful locations in Utah, Oregon, and on California beaches. The two instantly hit it off, but their respective jobs get in the way of what would otherwise be a beautiful friendship.īigelow developed the script with her then-husband James Cameron, and the movie was a hit. In this one, Reeves is a former college football star turned undercover FBI agent (with the pitch-perfect name Johnny Utah) who is sent to investigate Swayze’s group of bank robbers. Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze are star-crossed bros, a tried-and-true narrative construct most recently seen in the also excellent RRR. There’s another Kathryn Bigelow movie coming to streaming in October (more on that later in the month), but first let’s talk about one of her biggest commercial successes: the whirling surfer heist bromance Point Break. Bay and screenwriter Chris Fedak didn’t learn Speed’s lesson: Never, ever stop rolling.Īmbulance is streaming on Prime Video Oct. But it’s simply not possible to sustain that level of excitement over such a long running time, and the air goes out of the movie toward the end, especially after some overdeveloped plot mechanics require the ambulance to stop and start again more than once. The middle third of the film, as the first stage of the chase and the tensions inside the ambulance reach a simultaneous climax, is truly breathless stuff. The film’s structure has an inherent momentum that Bay supercharges with his relentless filmmaking energy. The plot and main characters are set up with brisk efficiency to get us to the action as quickly as possible, and the pace and pressure pile on steadily from there. Pete VolkĪmbulance’s greatest strength is how quickly it builds tension. Bay’s tightly contained thriller is lean and mean, with captivating car chases, groundbreaking drone camera work, and a deliciously unhinged performance from Jake Gyllenhaal.

One of the very best movies of 2022 (it might be my personal favorite) has left Peacock and arrived at Prime Video, exposing a whole lot of new people to one of Michael Bay’s best movies.

New movies to watch on streaming