The Ambulance

R

1990

1 hr. 35 min.

Horror

List

Reviews

48%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

When comic book artist Josh (Eric Roberts) meets Cheryl (Janine Turner), he immediately falls for her -- unfortunately, she immediately takes a fall as well, collapsing in the street. It turns out Cheryl is diabetic, so Josh calls for an ambulance and promises to meet her at the hospital. When he arrives, however, the hospital has no record of Cheryl. Josh looks for help, even going to a police lieutenant (James Earl Jones), but nobody believes his story, so he must find the ambulance himself.

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RyDawg084

Love this movie so much!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/22/23

Full Review

Steve D

Some good ideas and a bad script.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

09/09/23

Full Review

Tom S

I created a Rotten Tomatoes account just to give this movie a bad rating. The nonsensical dialogue was the worst I've heard in a long time. Every scene had hackneyed and ridiculously unrealistic elements. The only cool thing in the movie (besides Red Buttons, and possibly Stan Lee) was the old ambulance. I guess it was the real star, but (spoiler alert) even that was destroyed by this movie. I feel bad for anyone associated with making it. A true embarrassment to the industry.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is a weird movie about about a criminal organ harvesting ring. There is some solid acting from the always enjoyable Eric Roberts, the legendary Red Buttons and James Earl Jones. It revolves around the protagonist Josh Baker (Eric Roberts) who tries to pick up some lady at the bar, who passes out and gets taken away by an ambulance. Josh tries to find her, but she is not listed as a patient at any hospital. The central plot to the story is about a rogue ambulance that is taking people away that are never seen again. This is a very interesting idea, but the movie turns it in to a cheesy "catch them" suspense cliche. The ambulance is a pimped out old hearse like the Ghostbusters car that no sane person would ever mistake for an actual ambulance. James Earl Jones plays the cop assigned to find the missing people who is constantly chewing gum throughout the whole movie. In one scene, he gets run over by the ambulance only to have a somewhat amusing spectacle of him chewing gum while laying on the ground and looking up at the sky ( good camera work) until he passes out. Red Buttons plays the investigative newspaper man that I was genuinely surprised didn't wear a fedora with a press pass in the hatband with the nickname "Scoop" because of how cliche he was. If you want a little giggle or have late 80's/early 90's nostalgia, give it a watch, it will pass the time.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

tiago d

Como todos os filmes dessa época, historia simples, bons atores, nada de politica. Um filme super divertido. Só pegar a pipoca, se desligar do mundo e curtir!

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

a.l.jude p

Such a interesting plot gone awry just because sloppy acting by the lead character.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Larry Cohen

Director

Eric Roberts

Josh Baker

James Earl Jones

Lt. Spencer

Red Buttons

Elias Zacharai

Megan Gallagher

Sandra Malloy

Janine Turner

Cheryl

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

An absurd comical thriller that rocks.

Rated: B+

Jan 17, 2008

Full Review

Jules Brenner

Cinema Signals

Rated: 0/5

Jul 16, 2003

Full Review

Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Pretty amusing, entertaining horror thriller from Larry Cohen.

Rated: 3/5

Jan 8, 2003

Full Review

Scott Weinberg

eFilmCritic.com

Weirdly entertaining B-movie oddity.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 25, 2002

Full Review

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Synopsis

When comic book artist Josh (Eric Roberts) meets Cheryl (Janine Turner), he immediately falls for her -- unfortunately, she immediately takes a fall as well, collapsing in the street. It turns out Cheryl is diabetic, so Josh calls for an ambulance and promises to meet her at the hospital. When he arrives, however, the hospital has no record of Cheryl. Josh looks for help, even going to a police lieutenant (James Earl Jones), but nobody believes his story, so he must find the ambulance himself.

Director: Larry Cohen
Screenwriter: Larry Cohen
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): May 4, 2017
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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