Michael Bay is making a return to the big screen with Ambulance. Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II play a pair of bank robbers who are forced to hijack an ambulance after a robbery goes very, very wrong. The film's central trio are the paramedic, who has the unfortunate luck of being in the film's eponymous emergency vehicle when it gets stolen and is subsequently taken hostage by Gyllenhaal and Abdul-Mateen II.
Many of the director's trademark visual techniques, as well as his love of overblown, mind-numbing action, can be found in Ambulance. The premise of the film makes it the latest entry into the beloved cops vs. robbers subgenre. Here are 5 great heist movies that are all available to stream right now that provide many of the same thrilling pleasures Ambulance does.
You can stream on:Netflix,Hbo Max.
Ben Affleck's second feature directorial effort is one of the best of his career. The Town was released in 2010 and tells the story of a group of skilled criminals whose lives become complicated when one of them falls in love with a bank employee they held hostage during one of their heists. In case that wasn't bad enough, the group is being investigated by the FBI.
The Town has an impressive ensemble of performers, including Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, and Chris Cooper, as well as director and star Ben Affleck. He received an Oscar nomination for his performance in The Town, but he isn't the only one who has excelled in the film.
You can stream on Hulu.
One of the modern masters of the heist genre made a quirky and eccentric crime comedy. The film stars Adam Driver and Channing Tatum as two brothers who decide to try and pull off a robbery during a NASCAR race. They assemble a crew that includes their sister, a pair of redneck brothers, and an imprisoned explosives expert named Joe Bang.
The film is directed by Steven Soderbergh, the same man who made classics like Out of Sight and the Ocean, and it has the same relaxed ease, wit, and style. It also features a performance from Daniel Craig that should make anyone who sees it even more excited to see what his career will look like after James Bond.
There is a place to stream: HBO Max.
It's a good bet that the first movie audiences think of when they think of a heist movie is Ocean's Eleven. This Steven Soderbergh-directed remake of a 1960 film of the same name has an all-star cast of movie stars, a delightfully clever script, and a positively ludicrous central robbery.
George Clooney plays the eponymous criminal Danny Ocean in the film, but he leads an ensemble cast that also includes Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and Matt Damon. Ocean's Eleven is one of the most enjoyable and well-constructed heist movies ever made, thanks to Soderbergh and the film's cast. This 2001 classic is one of the most enjoyable movies to watch.
There is a place to stream: HBO Max.
Unlike Ocean's Eleven, which is content to be nothing more than a very well-executed but familiar movie, Inception wants nothing more than to bring as much originality to the genre as it can. Christopher Nolan's 2010 film is not about breaking into a bank and stealing money. It's about breaking into someone's mind and implanting an idea in their mind.
It would be a huge understatement to say that Inception is an ambitious remake of the heist genre. It is a film that deals with the difference between dreams and reality. The film follows the same basic structure as a heist movie, which makes it an interesting exercise for fans of the genre.
Michael Bay is one of the few filmmakers who is in love with creating big practical action sequences. Fans might think that Inception pairs better with Ambulance than it actually does.
Where to watch: On the internet.
Hell or High Water is a remake of a 1970s Western, and it's similar to Inception as a sci-fi blockbuster. The 2016 film follows a pair of Texas-born brothers as they begin pulling off a series of bank robberies in the hopes of saving their family's ranch.
Hell or High Water, starring Chris Pine and Ben Foster as their central bank robbers, features a number of memorable robbery scenes, but also explores why Pine and Foster chose to carry out their criminal schemes in the first place. The film ends up being just as much about the death of the American West as it is about two men pulling off high-stakes bank robberies.
The work done by everyone involved in Hell or High Water is a testament to the fact that it manages to do that while still being an entertaining and tense film.
The ambulance is in theaters.
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