Spoilers, I guess? If you care?

Only Michael Bay could take a perfectly good ninety minute B movie and turn it into a bloated, emotionally stunted glob of overwrought action and cliched storytelling. Watching this film made me miss Tony Scott. He would've been all up in this shit like a master ninja, slicing and dicing all the unnecessary baggage, stripping it of its stupidity whilst actually giving it some damn heart.

Michael Bay's idea of emotion made me howl with laughter not once, but twice. The first time he tried to make us sympathise with one of the criminals who's taken an EMT worker hostage by having him call his wife and have her tell him, and by proxy her, that he's really a good man. She then proceeds to lift their baby to the camera whilst talking about her cancer and their poor financial situation. I mean, I'm sorry but I burst out laughing. This is Michael Bay's idea of character development and emotional vulnerability? He info dumps all of this in about twelve seconds and I burst. It was so in your face and devoid of subtlety, whilst at the same time the guy is literally holding an EMT worker, and a dying cop, hostage as he's driving an ambulance with $16 million in stolen cash after shooting several cops beforehand whilst in the middle of a state wide police chase. The sheer cognitive whiplash was staggering.

It's okay though because he's actually the good guy now and really it's societies fault because who needs accountability? The EMT worker then becomes his bestie and they braid each others hair and tell each other their secrets despite being told by his brother that she'll be killed every other minute...smdh. However, it's not as bad as the final few scenes where we get a five second flashback of the brothers playing cowboys as they pretend draw on each other. This is the big flashback that shows how much they love and care for each other? Holy shit, I was howling like Rich Evans from RedLetterMedia. I just couldn't. Micheal Bay is a fifty year old man with the emotional maturity of a fourteen year old boy.

Don't even get me started on the end when the hostages try to excuse the guy's plethora of crimes because he had a sudden change of mind and he's really a good guy and he's very, very sorry. Seriously, Micheal? Seriously?

Anyway, I went into this film with good faith, I think Michael Bay can be a damn entertaining filmmaker outside of the "Transformers" universe but this wasn't it. It started out promising but then it went on and on and on and on. Whilst I was watching this film I checked to see how long I had left as it felt like it was nearing the conclusion, I was then left shocked, exasperated and finally depressed to learn there was still another FORTY minutes left.....sigh!

Length of time DOES NOT make your film any more epic or grandiose. It makes it all the more fucking annoying. I got shit to do, this was a perfectly fine ninety minute movie but oh boy, Mikey Bay couldn't stop masturbating to his new pet discovery, drones. Jeez, this fucking guy. I get it, the first couple of drone shots were cool, there was a nice shot where it comes flying down over a building before swooping into a barrel role as it comes behind the ambulance being chased by a dozen cop cars. I grant you, that was pretty damn cool, but not EVERY ten freaking seconds. What is it with this guy? Once is good, two is understandable but not several dozen, less is more. Learn some goddamn restraint will you? It's like this guy can't help himself, he finds a new toy, wears it out and then he'll move on to the next flashy thing.

Writing this has made me even more annoyed so I'm dropping this another half star. I really wanted to like this film and for the first forty/fifty minutes it was a more than serviceable thriller. Unfortunately, Michael Bay has no self control and he proceeded to lose any and all goodwill by the hour mark. What a crying shame.

*Edit - I've calmed down now so I'll put the half star back, but I'm still incredibly disappointed with this film.