Something of a pleasant surprise, "Armored" is an action movie heist yarn that is a bit lighter on the action and a bit heavier on the characterization than the majority of films in that particular genre.
Ty Hackett (Columbus Short) is the newest member of a team of armored-vehicle guards - a team that includes such familiar faces as Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne and Jean Reno - who plan to stage a robbery of several of their trucks, then keep the cash (42 million big ones) for themselves. A veteran of the Iraq war, Ty is a young man who's struggling to pay two mortgages while raising his troubled young brother following the death of their parents. Highly principled by nature, Ty is at first reluctant to join his compatriots in their illegal scheme, but his dire financial circumstances ultimately make the lure of easy money damn-near-impossible to resist. But when the job, rather predictably, doesn't go off quite as planned, the men, Ty included, are suddenly confronted with having to cross over that fine ethical line that separates the petty (or not-so-petty) crook from the cold-blooded killer.
Though the post-robbery scenes do feel a bit more trite and conventional than the pre-robbery ones, the movie, as a whole, is a sincere and well-played drama that does the best it can with its obviously limited resources and budget. This includes providing some sharp and well-written dialogue (by first-time screenwriter James V. Simpson) for characters who refuse to become walking stereotypes in a storyline that nicely sidesteps any number of potential heist-movie clichés. Similarly, director Nimrod Antal makes his minimalist action scenes count by reminding us that such sequences can still be exciting when we actually care about what happens to the people involved in them - and when they have a powerful dramatic dynamic operating at their core.
The performances are all first-rate, but special recognition must go to Short and Dillon who both use restraint and understatement to make their respective characters believable and genuine.
Ty Hackett (Columbus Short) is the newest member of a team of armored-vehicle guards - a team that includes such familiar faces as Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne and Jean Reno - who plan to stage a robbery of several of their trucks, then keep the cash (42 million big ones) for themselves. A veteran of the Iraq war, Ty is a young man who's struggling to pay two mortgages while raising his troubled young brother following the death of their parents. Highly principled by nature, Ty is at first reluctant to join his compatriots in their illegal scheme, but his dire financial circumstances ultimately make the lure of easy money damn-near-impossible to resist. But when the job, rather predictably, doesn't go off quite as planned, the men, Ty included, are suddenly confronted with having to cross over that fine ethical line that separates the petty (or not-so-petty) crook from the cold-blooded killer.
Though the post-robbery scenes do feel a bit more trite and conventional than the pre-robbery ones, the movie, as a whole, is a sincere and well-played drama that does the best it can with its obviously limited resources and budget. This includes providing some sharp and well-written dialogue (by first-time screenwriter James V. Simpson) for characters who refuse to become walking stereotypes in a storyline that nicely sidesteps any number of potential heist-movie clichés. Similarly, director Nimrod Antal makes his minimalist action scenes count by reminding us that such sequences can still be exciting when we actually care about what happens to the people involved in them - and when they have a powerful dramatic dynamic operating at their core.
The performances are all first-rate, but special recognition must go to Short and Dillon who both use restraint and understatement to make their respective characters believable and genuine.