Official Movies Trailer: Armored [Blu-ray]

Armored [Blu-ray] Review

Heist films have been a genre that has yielded some truly amazing movies. The recent THE ITALIAN JOB, RONIN and more, even the Pink Panther series, have given us moments where we root for the bad guy in his attempt to pilfer the goods from an even worse bad guy or banker. And now we have a new entry, ARMORED.

I must admit that when I saw the preview for this film (over and over again it seemed) I had no interest in it. Even as I put it in the DVD player I wasn't expecting much. Perhaps this is why I was so pleasantly surprised.

The film focuses on a group of armored car drivers, friends in the field. New to the group is Ty Hackett (Columbus Short). Ty was a decorated war hero in Iraq who returned to a home where his parents had both died and he was not responsible for his younger brother Jimmy.

Working with Ty is Mike Cochrone (Matt Dillon), Ty's godfather and mentor at the company. Through Mike, Ty got the job he now has as well as friends like Baines (Laurence Fishburne), Quinn (Jean Reno), Palmer (Amaury Nolasco) and Dobbs (Skeet Ulrich). This group welcomes Ty with open arms and a sense of brotherhood.

On a regular run, the armored vehicle containing Ty and Mike and driven by Baines shorts out. Mike smells sugar in the gas tank burning and they know it's a set up. A black van pulls up, two men place explosives on the window and as it is about to go off a few firecrackers explode leaving Baines and Mike laughing. It was nothing more than an initiation prank on Ty who has passed his probationary period.

Mike gives Ty rides to and from work and one night not long after the prank, he tells Ty they have a solution to his money problems (he's about to lose his home). They plan to make the robbery real. The men guarding the money plan on a heist that would take in million and expect him to be a part of the operation. Ty at first refuses but after returning home to find a social worker ready to take Jimmy form him, he agrees, as long as no one gets hurt.

The plan moves along like clockwork, the team loading the money and then heading to an abandoned steel factory where they plan on hiding the money and then making it look as if they were hijacked and the money stolen. But as with all good plans, things go wrong when a bum hiding in the plant sees them. As he tries to get away, Baines shoots him in the back.

Ty has had enough. He attempts to help the man but Mike shoots the bum in the back making sure he's dead. Ty no longer recognizes these men as who he thought they were and takes one of the two armored vehicles they came in to get away. He's stopped by Mike in the other but then locks himself in with the load of cash in the vehicle. Now the men change from simple thieves to murderers who want nothing less than to get Ty and the money out.

While they do so, a police car with an officer (Milo Ventimiglia) shows up. When Ty uses a battery to make the siren on his vehicle go off, Baines shoots the policeman as well. Now the group faces not just murder charges but the possible death of a policeman as well. But he's not dead and Ty risks a move to rescue him and get him inside the vehicle with him.

The cat and mouse game of how to get Ty out, how Ty gets help and whether or not these men will get away with murder and the cash makes for a high speed thriller that delivers on all levels. The most amazing thing to me was that as I watched I found myself surprised that it moved along so quickly. I lost track of time and never once felt like the film dragged at any point.

The film is a perfect combination of story, special effects and performances that make you truly believe these men are who they claim to be. Their motivations, their passions and their brutality are demonstrated by each individual as the film draws to its dramatic ending.

Is it predictable? Sure. But it is the rare heist film that isn't. And even those tend to have a last minute twist in common that makes them different. The joy of a heist film is less about its predictablity and more about the ride it offers getting there.

If you're looking for a film that offers adrenaline pushing moments and a hero to boot, then make a point of picking this one up. It's not a rental only film but one that movie fans might want to even add to their collection.

Armored [Blu-ray] Overview

A crew of officers at an armored transport security firm risk their lives when they embark on the ultimate heist.against their own company. Armed with a seemingly fool-proof plan, the men plan on making off with a fortune with harm to none. But when an unexpected witness interferes, the plan quickly unravels and all bets are off.

Armored [Blu-ray] Specifications

A good cast does its best to make Armored roll, but while this heist flick certainly has its moments, it's ultimately arrested by a predictable story, cliché-ridden dialogue, and ham-fisted direction. Matt Dillon plays Mike, the leader of a sextet of guards working for an armored truck company; other members of the team are portrayed by Laurence Fishburne, Jean Reno, Skeet Ulrich, and Amaury Nolasco, but the key is newcomer Ty (Columbus Short), an Iraq War veteran whose parents have both died, leaving Ty to support his troubled younger brother and somehow pay the mortgage on the home their folks left behind. When Mike and the others cook up a scheme to steal a cool million on their next delivery and then claim they were hijacked, Ty is dead set against it--until he goes home and is greeted by a child-welfare official who threatens to put his brother into foster care unless Ty can prove himself capable of looking after the kid (this is but one of the handy plot conveniences designed to push the story forward). Predictability is one thing, but director Nimrod Antal and screenwriter James V. Simpson's setups are so on-the-nose that Helen Keller could see what's coming ("Promise me nobody gets hurt," Ty says to Mike, which guarantees that the body count will start to mount almost instantly). Armored has some good action sequences, a gritty look, a couple of welcome surprises, and the occasional tense moment. But when the great heist movies are recalled, from Topkapi to Sexy Beast, this one is unlikely to be among them. --Sam Graham

Stills from Armored (Click for larger image)