Written and directed by Larry Cohen

Starring Eric Roberts, James Earl Jones, Megan Gallagher, Richard Bright, Janine Turner, Eric Braeden, Nick Chinlund, Red Buttons, James Dixon, and Stan Lee

The chaotic creativity of this 1990 flick is absolutely something that belongs in Larry Cohen’s distinct filmography, and it’s all such fun to gobble up. I can understand why I’d come across a review that compared this to After Hours, considering the sheer wildness that both movies frantically embark on over a short period of time. I’d known about a few of the details thanks to my buddy Rolo Tony, who had recommended this movie, but holy crap, there’s still way more in store. Sure, I wouldn’t say all of the material coheres together completely smoothly, since there are times where this can wrestle with a bit too much on its plate. That being said, props to Armond Lebowitz and Claudia Finkle’s editing for piecing this together and allowing it to run forward at a fast pace that doesn’t dizzy the hell out of me. I’m not getting confused over what’s happening. Even during the most frenetic moments, I can still keep track of what’s occurring with these interconnected plotlines. This lets me conserve my energy for processing the imaginative tale as it follows a comic book illustrator named Josh who Eric Roberts plays up with a singularly dashing charisma and with a sense of humor that helps get plenty of chuckles out of me, a lieutenant who has James Earl Jones arching such a massive eyebrow at Josh and who gets such memorability out of the gum that he chews, a police officer who has Megan Gallagher endearingly bringing some teeth to her attitude and who shares a chemistry of likable tension with Roberts, an elderly reporter named Elias who Red Buttons fleshes out into such an outrageously charming and vibrant individual and whose screentime with Roberts makes for the type of partnership that I can’t get enough of, and a nefarious doctor who has a mustachioed Eric Braeden maintaining a polite and calm exterior that belies this villain’s cold and murderous intentions. Oh, and we additionally have Stan Lee, of all people, showing up in a cameo as Josh’s boss. It’s truly fascinating how much flair Lee always manages to deploy in these small parts. We get to enjoy that quite often in the MCU, and now we can jump all the way back to a pre-MCU period in which he was exuding that same iconic air.

The eerie green lighting inside the evil ambulance, the lively action sequences and the stuntwork that’s used to carry them out, Elias’s excitement over Josh’s reputation as a homicidal maniac, one of the minions getting blinded with urine—there’s a ton that deserves my praise as these things build up both the comedy and the thrills of this ridiculous journey. I do think it could have thickened up the meat for the doctor’s scheme, though. Yes, we get a surface-level glimpse at why he’s helming this, but I’d have been up for adding nuance to the commentary that this movie aims to present on the medical industry’s capacity for patient exploitation. Maybe this could have woven in the element of health insurance, for example. But even then, The Ambulance lands as a lovably bizarre pick for me to dig up from Cohen’s oeuvre. Special Effects and The Stuff are worthwhile as well. I’ll continue to navigate more of his work.

My final rating: 4 out of 5 stars