The life of an armored truck guard is...so...exciting...?
Armored
starring Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Amaury Nolasco, Fred Ward, Milo Ventimiglia, Columbus Short
directed by Nimrod Antal
I grew up watching action flicks with my Dad. He was into them, so therefore I was too. I can’t really defend most action movies; they’re thin plotted, lame excuses for explosions, sex, and violence. But, they have their audience, and to this day I cannot resist going to see an action flick that catches my interest. Armored did just that. It packs a great preview, one hell of a cast, and packs a ton of energy. In the very least, I’d get a healthy dose of kick ass motion picture, right?
Armored follows a close knit group of armored truck guards. Ty Hackett (Short) is the new guy; he got the job with help from his godfather and seasoned guard Mike Cochrone (Dillon). Problem is, since Ty’s parents died, he’s been taking care of his little brother and trying to keep the house from being repossessed by the bank. Mike hatches a plan with his follow guards, Quinn (Reno), Baines (Fishburne), and Palmer (Nolasco); they’d stash a shipment of $42 million and say they were robbed at gunpoint. Ty is hesitate, but when he gets a visit from child services, he reluctantly joins in with a promise from Mike that nobody gets hurt. Unfortunately, as the heist is going down, Sheriff’s Deputy Eckehart (Ventimiglia) walks into the situation and is shot down by Baines. Ty then makes a choice; He locks himself and Eckehart into one of the trucks along with the money. Now he just has to find a way to stay alive long enough to get help.
The plot is really about as simple as it sounds; you get a few scenes to get up to date on the character’s backgrounds, and then its headlong into the heist. Now, the heist is supposed to be the high point of the film, but at a short 88 minutes, the film quite frankly rushes things. Instead of being creative and intense, the stand off between Ty and the other guards generally falls flat. There’s only one plan to get into the car, and Ty manages to maneuveraround the other guards way to easily. Much more time could have been spent trying different approaches; I mean, you’re trying to break into an armored car, get creative with it! Blow stuff up! Sadly, the action in this action flick turned out only half hearted. What could have been adrenaline racing was only so-so.
The performances were only as good as the plot. Matt Dillon plays a one dimensional semi-bad guy. The script gave him every opportunityto really delve into the character and show some conflict, but he failed. Horribly. I’m also very disappointed with Laurence Fishburne. This man is capable of award winning acting, but in Armored he is reduced to a secondary character with flat one liners and ambiguous violent tendencies. The character of Baines is just a typical one note devil’s advocate that quite frankly movie audiences have seen way too many times. Milo Ventimiglia was too busy screaming bloody murder the whole time to bother with actually acting. The only shining star of the entire production was fairly new and young Columbus Short. He took the character of Ty Hackett and made him conflicted, tragic, and heroic all at once. He was the only actor to bring any kind of intensity to his role. Keep plugging away, Columbus, you’ll make something of yourself one day.
I so wanted to movie to be an action packed force to be reckoned with. I didn’t get that. I got a half hearted attempt to take a decent set up and screw it up. Completely. For a short movie with little content to be spoken of, the price of admission these days is way too expensive and just not worth it. Armored is something I’d expect to see on TBS on a Saturday night. I’d stop to watch it through out of minor interest and nothing else to do. The commercials would string it out to be respectively longer. And it would be free. So skip the theater, skip it on DVD, and just wait for a TV premiere. Don’t worry; you probably won’t have to wait very long.
Got Armored?
The life of an armored truck guard is...so...exciting...?
Armored
starring Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Amaury Nolasco, Fred Ward, Milo Ventimiglia, Columbus Short
directed by Nimrod Antal
I grew up watching action flicks with my Dad. He was into them, so therefore I was too. I can’t really defend most action movies; they’re thin plotted, lame excuses for explosions, sex, and violence. But, they have their audience, and to this day I cannot resist going to see an action flick that catches my interest. Armored did just that. It packs a great preview, one hell of a cast, and packs a ton of energy. In the very least, I’d get a healthy dose of kick ass motion picture, right?
Armored follows a close knit group of armored truck guards. Ty Hackett (Short) is the new guy; he got the job with help from his godfather and seasoned guard Mike Cochrone (Dillon). Problem is, since Ty’s parents died, he’s been taking care of his little brother and trying to keep the house from being repossessed by the bank. Mike hatches a plan with his follow guards, Quinn (Reno), Baines (Fishburne), and Palmer (Nolasco); they’d stash a shipment of $42 million and say they were robbed at gunpoint. Ty is hesitate, but when he gets a visit from child services, he reluctantly joins in with a promise from Mike that nobody gets hurt. Unfortunately, as the heist is going down, Sheriff’s Deputy Eckehart (Ventimiglia) walks into the situation and is shot down by Baines. Ty then makes a choice; He locks himself and Eckehart into one of the trucks along with the money. Now he just has to find a way to stay alive long enough to get help.
The plot is really about as simple as it sounds; you get a few scenes to get up to date on the character’s backgrounds, and then its headlong into the heist. Now, the heist is supposed to be the high point of the film, but at a short 88 minutes, the film quite frankly rushes things. Instead of being creative and intense, the stand off between Ty and the other guards generally falls flat. There’s only one plan to get into the car, and Ty manages to maneuveraround the other guards way to easily. Much more time could have been spent trying different approaches; I mean, you’re trying to break into an armored car, get creative with it! Blow stuff up! Sadly, the action in this action flick turned out only half hearted. What could have been adrenaline racing was only so-so.
The performances were only as good as the plot. Matt Dillon plays a one dimensional semi-bad guy. The script gave him every opportunityto really delve into the character and show some conflict, but he failed. Horribly. I’m also very disappointed with Laurence Fishburne. This man is capable of award winning acting, but in Armored he is reduced to a secondary character with flat one liners and ambiguous violent tendencies. The character of Baines is just a typical one note devil’s advocate that quite frankly movie audiences have seen way too many times. Milo Ventimiglia was too busy screaming bloody murder the whole time to bother with actually acting. The only shining star of the entire production was fairly new and young Columbus Short. He took the character of Ty Hackett and made him conflicted, tragic, and heroic all at once. He was the only actor to bring any kind of intensity to his role. Keep plugging away, Columbus, you’ll make something of yourself one day.
I so wanted to movie to be an action packed force to be reckoned with. I didn’t get that. I got a half hearted attempt to take a decent set up and screw it up. Completely. For a short movie with little content to be spoken of, the price of admission these days is way too expensive and just not worth it. Armored is something I’d expect to see on TBS on a Saturday night. I’d stop to watch it through out of minor interest and nothing else to do. The commercials would string it out to be respectively longer. And it would be free. So skip the theater, skip it on DVD, and just wait for a TV premiere. Don’t worry; you probably won’t have to wait very long.