Movie Review: Armored

The increasing trend in movies these days is to have a trailer which shows so much that it is unnecessary for one to actually purchase a ticket to see the film. In other words, you watched the entire movie in the 2 minute trailer. Armored is another victim of bad marketing (and movie making) where you can save yourself $10 by watching the trailer. There are virtually no surprises left in the film.

From the trailer you learn this:  Guy is hard up for money. Guy has job driving armored car. Other armored car drivers hatch plan to lift $42 million from the trucks. Guy decides to go along with it. Guy changes his mind during the heist. Guy must prevent other guys from taking the money and killing him. Guy faces down with other guys. Guess who wins?

Armored is a manufactured action flick that pulls from every other sub par action movie you have seen. The film is directed by Nimrod Antal (Vacancy) and stars an odd mix of actors consisting of Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburn, Skeet Ulrich, Jean Reno, and Columbus Short. When Ty Hacket (Short) takes a job driving an armored car, he does so to provide for his teenage brother who he must look after. When money is short and times are tough Hacket goes along with a plan to steal $42 million from the armored trucks with a plan that his friend Mike (Dillon) has created. The plan is flawed, chaos ensues, the guys begin turning on one another, and Hacket locks himself in the truck with all the money.

At this point in the movie the plot turns from your typical heist film to a more original path that involves Hacket attempting to thwart the other guards from breaking in the truck and killing him. The motivation of the other guards to get in the truck is that they have routine radio calls to alert dispatch of their position and status. The clock is ticking and they have to get inside the truck. This is one of the strongest plot devices in the film, which unfortunately is completely disregarded in the third act. Time no longer becomes an issue and the film goes back to a predictable formula.

There are points in the film which have original ideas that work. However there are far too many cliches that take away any promise from this action flick, and therefore the movie brings itself down to the lowest common denominator. My expectations were not high going into the movie. The performances are television caliber, the direction is all over the places, and the scripts is a mess. There are a few intense action sequences sprinkled throughout that do their best at redeeming the movie, but sometimes that is just not enough.

Fanboyz Grade: C-