Ty(Columbus Short) is up against it. He's haunted by the war in Iraq, having returned a veteran decorated for his heroism, tormented by the many deaths he witnessed during his tour. His parents dead, two mortgages with banks demanding payment, and not enough shifts at work available to make ends meet. But all of this is a drop in the bucket compared to what happens when his fellow workers, including godfather Mike Cochrane(Matt Dillon), decide to heist $42 million, their jobs as armored truck drivers carrying the motherlode affording them the opportunity to set up a scam where they can claim to have been robbed while in the act of transporting the loot. No one was supposed to get hurt.
In a moment of weakness, Ty decides to go along with Mike and company's plan, until a hobo is shot dead thanks to Baines(Laurence Fishburne)who gets trigger happy with his shotgun. The others who take part in this plan include Quinn(Jean Reno), Palmer(Amaury Nolasco), and Dobbs(Skeet Ulrich, who looks and acts like a nervy junkie). When Ty tries to walk the shot-in-the-back hobo to a hospital, Mike shoots the poor guy in the head..Ty responds in kind by hiding inside one of the armored trucks, almost able to flee the warehouse where a lot of the money is removed and hidden(the truck Ty "confiscates" also has money inside)before Mike drives him into a crash which halts such an almost successfully orchestrated operation.
Things go from bad to worse when Mike informs his colleagues that they'd kill Ty(as he listens on in shame and disappointment)and allow him to be the hero who died while protecting them. So they will try their damnedest to break into the truck to get Ty, but have only 40 minutes until they must call headquarters to communicate to their boss, Duncan Ashcroft(Fred Ward), about the load being stolen..its important that the drivers call in every so often to establish how things are going.
Like we often see in movies, when money and greed take hold, friendship and loyalty go out the window and all that matters is the green. Ty retains his integrity and dignity while watching his mentor, Mike, metamorphose into this evil monster(the cold look in Dillon's eyes as he acknowledges his betrayal to Ty is plenty disturbing). We see that Fishburne is always capable of shooting someone as he holds his shotgun in his hands just looking for an excuse to kill. Milo Ventimiglia is a cop, Jake Eckehart, who stumbles upon Mike and his men, gut shot by Baines, and rescued while bleeding profusely by Ty. What I think works for the film is the question of how Ty would be able to keep himself from harm as everyone he once trusted plan to murder him. Of course one way to possibly get him to surrender would be to kidnap his brother, Jimmy(Andre Kinney), threatening the teenager's life if he doesn't give himself up.
I'm glad Fishburne currently has his gig on CSI because it allows him to flesh out a character he isn't able to in movies like ARMORED & PREDATORS which consist of unsavory sorts who have limited participation..Fishburne seems to be in these films for his name recognition. ARMORED is the case where a whole cast of interesting names can do little to enhance a rather simple, short action thriller. Most of the film is set within the warehouse as the numbers dwindle thanks to Ty's smarts and level-headedness, able to think during crisis as his fate seems ominous to say the least. Because Dobbs isn't like the others, he does try to help Ty when he appeals to the young man for assistance, paying the price, while Palmer, who clings to his bible yet fails God when the lure of moohla draws him to the dark side, yields to his guilt when he commits murder. Dillon, as the ringleader, is on a mission to retrieve a big payday, no matter who he has to eliminate in order to do so. ARMORED, ultimately, has as predictable an outcome as you'd expect, a straightforward plot which ends with the bad guys getting their just desserts. The motivation behind the plot to steal the money comes from a heist which involved Ashcroft who took two bullets to the back which crippled him..it's believed that the heist was pulled off by actual armored truck drivers not criminals. The plot doesn't have a lot of meat, and there's not much to the movie besides the group trying to get their hands on Ty as he tosses a wrench in their supposed fool-proof plan..what you see is what you get. Strong central performance from Columbus Short(whose name is down in the credits, funnily enough)does provide the film with an anchor. The running time might be an asset, at only 82 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome.
In a moment of weakness, Ty decides to go along with Mike and company's plan, until a hobo is shot dead thanks to Baines(Laurence Fishburne)who gets trigger happy with his shotgun. The others who take part in this plan include Quinn(Jean Reno), Palmer(Amaury Nolasco), and Dobbs(Skeet Ulrich, who looks and acts like a nervy junkie). When Ty tries to walk the shot-in-the-back hobo to a hospital, Mike shoots the poor guy in the head..Ty responds in kind by hiding inside one of the armored trucks, almost able to flee the warehouse where a lot of the money is removed and hidden(the truck Ty "confiscates" also has money inside)before Mike drives him into a crash which halts such an almost successfully orchestrated operation.
Things go from bad to worse when Mike informs his colleagues that they'd kill Ty(as he listens on in shame and disappointment)and allow him to be the hero who died while protecting them. So they will try their damnedest to break into the truck to get Ty, but have only 40 minutes until they must call headquarters to communicate to their boss, Duncan Ashcroft(Fred Ward), about the load being stolen..its important that the drivers call in every so often to establish how things are going.
Like we often see in movies, when money and greed take hold, friendship and loyalty go out the window and all that matters is the green. Ty retains his integrity and dignity while watching his mentor, Mike, metamorphose into this evil monster(the cold look in Dillon's eyes as he acknowledges his betrayal to Ty is plenty disturbing). We see that Fishburne is always capable of shooting someone as he holds his shotgun in his hands just looking for an excuse to kill. Milo Ventimiglia is a cop, Jake Eckehart, who stumbles upon Mike and his men, gut shot by Baines, and rescued while bleeding profusely by Ty. What I think works for the film is the question of how Ty would be able to keep himself from harm as everyone he once trusted plan to murder him. Of course one way to possibly get him to surrender would be to kidnap his brother, Jimmy(Andre Kinney), threatening the teenager's life if he doesn't give himself up.
I'm glad Fishburne currently has his gig on CSI because it allows him to flesh out a character he isn't able to in movies like ARMORED & PREDATORS which consist of unsavory sorts who have limited participation..Fishburne seems to be in these films for his name recognition. ARMORED is the case where a whole cast of interesting names can do little to enhance a rather simple, short action thriller. Most of the film is set within the warehouse as the numbers dwindle thanks to Ty's smarts and level-headedness, able to think during crisis as his fate seems ominous to say the least. Because Dobbs isn't like the others, he does try to help Ty when he appeals to the young man for assistance, paying the price, while Palmer, who clings to his bible yet fails God when the lure of moohla draws him to the dark side, yields to his guilt when he commits murder. Dillon, as the ringleader, is on a mission to retrieve a big payday, no matter who he has to eliminate in order to do so. ARMORED, ultimately, has as predictable an outcome as you'd expect, a straightforward plot which ends with the bad guys getting their just desserts. The motivation behind the plot to steal the money comes from a heist which involved Ashcroft who took two bullets to the back which crippled him..it's believed that the heist was pulled off by actual armored truck drivers not criminals. The plot doesn't have a lot of meat, and there's not much to the movie besides the group trying to get their hands on Ty as he tosses a wrench in their supposed fool-proof plan..what you see is what you get. Strong central performance from Columbus Short(whose name is down in the credits, funnily enough)does provide the film with an anchor. The running time might be an asset, at only 82 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome.