Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

MARIO GAUCI To the 1970s, nothing was sacred – so, we had a string of black comedies/satires about army surgeons (M.A.S.H. [1970]) or the goings-on at a big-city hospital (THE HOSPITAL [1971]) and, in this film’s case, ambulance-drivers. However, another thing these films had in common is that, amid the jokes, there was something serious being said – and things often took an unexpected tragic turn (as in the scene here where a call to a gun-toting junkie sees a young hospital attendant being blown away when he tries to reason with her!); another is the one in which a woman in labor, denied access to a hospital’s facilities due to the proverbial red tape, delivers her baby inside the ambulance and dies because the “rig” is ill-equipped to deal with massive haemorrhaging! The men (and women) themselves are depicted as having a detached, even flippant, attitude to their sensitive profession – but we’re told that this is needed if one is to keep his sanity; still, there are those who overstep the line of decency (one attendant allows his green partner to drive the ambulance, when it had previously been his sole prerogative, so as to be alone with the unconscious and good-looking patient!). Other gags, however, are more typical: for instance, the scene where they have difficulty transporting a large black woman down a flight of stairs – which predictably ends with her slipping out of their grasp and scurrying down the street on a stretcher, miraculously dodging the oncoming traffic – brought tears to my eyes. A topical subplot, then, involves the rivalry between ambulance companies whose members would go to extreme lengths to intercept or otherwise stall their opponents – the issue is ultimately resolved in court by suggesting a merger between the two.Though the film is somewhat uneven, it’s well served by the cast (incidentally, several films from this era opted to use monikers in connection with their protagonists for a title, such as the recently-viewed road movie DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY [1974]): Bill Cosby (as “Mother”, a seasoned driver everyone looks up to); Raquel Welch (“Jugs”, the secretary who wishes to be an ambulance driver and takes night school to acquire the requisite training – her first unofficial job proves memorable as a police car gallantly offers to escort her but, having no address, leads them on a wild goose chase until a colleague she unwittingly absconded with improvises a patient’s get-up!); the latter, then, is Harvey Keitel (a former cop suspended for drug-dealing, which earns him the nickname “Speed” – at first glance, the Method actor seems out of his element here but wisely plays it straight most of the time); Allen Garfield shines as the loud-mouth yet flustered director; and equally effective is Larry Hagman, naturally playing the biggest scumbag of the lot (the afore-mentioned lecherous driver who even gambles as to how many lives are lost per day – which causes Cosby to physically assault him when he wants to add Bruce Davison, the attendant who fell in the line of duty, to the list) and who, during the climax, suddenly reappears at his former workplace armed with a gun and making demands (having gone berserk in the interim)…only to be pinned down with a bullet fired by an over-eager cop.

vcorchia It seems some of the criticism of this movie stems from the fact that it mixes comedy and drama. Well the fact is, Yates handles both types of scenes adeptly.On the comedy note, there are many great lines, Larry Hagman is over the top funny, and the scene where they try to get an overweight woman down a narrow stairway in a housing project is one of the single most hilarious scenes ever filmed.Raquel Welch does a good job, and obviously fits the bill for her character's anatomical requirements. Harvey Keitel is solid as always and Bill Cosby is outstanding as the "Mother" of this motley bunch, handling his scenes as the comic rebel and the seriously dramatic ones with equal aplomb.

Brandy I had never heard of this movie until I saw it on AMC(American Movie Classics)when I was sitting up late one night.It starts off as a upbeat comedy with a truly great cast (It would cost MEGA-Millions to assemble that same cast today).The movie starts out upbeat and very funny but then it turns darker when Harvey Kietel stops Larry Hagman from screwing (having sex) an unconscious college girl who has overdosed on sleeping pills, and then from there Harvey Kietel begins having a relationship with Raquel Welch, and one of the ambulance driver is shot and killed and from there this movie transforms itself from an upbeat comedy into a drama.Bill Cosby gives an outstanding performance. This movie is a jewel of acting on his part. (( I love the scene where he makes the local burger joint put peanut butter on his cheeseburger)). Bill Cosby gives a performance that it both funny in the beginning and then heart touching as his character deals with the death of his partner (great stuff from Bill) My only complaint about this film is that once it looses it comedic steam and turns serious it never regains it humor again. I would have like to seen the humor continue all the way through the movie, but it just doesn't.this movie would not be made today because of all of the racial humor, and the rape scene with Larry Hagman.that just wouldn't be allowed in one of today's films.I still recommend this movie to anyone who wants to stroll down memory lane and remember the 1970's ...... it all there the disco style music, the big hair, the clothes, and I even saw a Ford Mustang II traveling on the highway in one of the scenes and I said to myself "Oh my god, I used to drive one of those cars" (admit it...when was the last time you saw a Mustang II out on the highway.its been a while hasn't it) - although I had never seen this movie before, it still brought back lots of 1970's memories

MTGrizzly This is a highly underrated piece of Cosby's work. Although, now, the concept of a private ambulance service that is primarily interested in money seems rather, quaint, it was almost the norm in the mid-seventies when this movie was made. Although most people don't realize it, the largest ambulance provider in the US is still privately operated, for profit, so, maybe not all that has changed.Cosby is brilliant as "Mother", a sort of archetype character that melds together all the clichés of what "ambulance drivers" were in an era when many ambulance services were still run by funeral homes - I recall pushing a 1970 "Miller Meteor" Cadillace ambulance, which was basically, a converted hearse, up and down hills at 35 MPH, it's 500 cubic inch engine floored, straining and just barely able to make it up the hill. This is not "EMS," it is "you call, we haul." Cosby brings out the nitty gritty of a profession that was mostly populated by caring people who ran up against the ethos of profit in medicine and owners who were just out to make a buck. You start out really caring, but run head on into the reality that aiding the sick and injured is not the end, just the means to the end. You learn this working very long hours, under horrible conditions, for very little money.Rachel Welch portrayed the emerging role of women in emergency services very well. The hoops she had to jump through just to get on a rig were exaggerations of what really was happening in the industry at the time. Similarly, Welch's reaction when faced with the reality of emergency medicine is right on point. There is a great deal of difference between what you learn in textbooks and real life. And real life isn't always that pleasant. But, as Mother says, Jugs has the "dedication of a jungle missionary." She would have to, just to get where she was and stay there.Harvey Kietel was just starting out when he played "Speed" and his performance in the role foreshadowed the brilliant career that followed. I thought the "Speed" reference was a little cryptic. I thought, for a long time, it referred his desire to drive fast. However, the "Speed" character gives a different point of view - that of an outsider - to the hijinks of the staff of F&B Ambulance Service. He shows us how absurd some of things that happen are.The rest of the characters seemed to all be lifted directly from the real world. Harry and Naomi Fishbine seemed to be modeled after a husband and wife team that ran a not too different private ambulance company that I worked for on the west coast in the seventies - right down to the lecture about how much each patient was worth. Larry Hagman's character portrayed a type of worker in the industry that was always on the margins - you weren't sure why he is doing what he was doing, but you couldn't see him doing anything else.The events portrayed in the movie where very similar to the "urban legends" about what supposedly happened at private ambulance companies in the sixties and seventies. As most legends are, some of them are based on loose interpretations of fact. I have, in fact, had difficulty taking very obese patients down flights of stairs. Some of the places we went to on calls had rodents large enough to cause grave concern. There were always rumors of people who smoked pot or drank on the job. During my entire career, whenever there were two private ambulance companies in competition "jumping calls" and competing for patients did happen - sometimes on a daily basis. The owners of one of the ambulances services I worked for in the eighties ordered their employees to attend city government meetings when the company was being discussed, (this was long after the everyone who worked in the industry had becomes "professionals). And, yes, I have been the victim of layoffs from private ambulance companies when they lost their government contracts. I have, also, been held up at gunpoint for drugs, stabbed and shot at. The reality of the movie made it all that much funny and more real.Mother, Jugs and Speed is an interesting and amusing look back at a time when EMS was just starting to become a reality. The acting was top notch. The events portrayed were close enough to real, (or to urban legends), as to make them seem likely. The writing could have been better - some of the dialog was very marginal. Overall, as a lay person and a retired EMS professional who worked in the ambulance industry at the time this film was made, I found the movie to be very enjoyable and suggest others watch it - with tongue firmly in cheek, of course.