Assalto ao Carro Blindado

The war veteran Ty Hackett (Columbus Short) is hired to work as security guard by the Eagle Shield Security where his old friend Mike Cochroone (Matt Dyllon) works. Ty is having financial difficulties after the death of his father and is raising his brother Jimmy (Andre Jamal Kinney) alone. He teams up with Mike's brother-in-law Baines (Laurence Fishburne) and their coworkers Quinn (Jean Reno), Palmer (Amaury Nolasco) and Dobbs (Skeet Ulrich). One night, Mike invites Ty to robber the two armored trucks that will transport forty-two million dollars. The reluctant Ty accepts after the promise of Mike that nobody would be hurt in the heist. They bring the trucks to an old mill and hide the money in a hole; however their operation is witnessed by a tramp. Baines shots the man with his shotgun and Ty decides to help him; but when Mike executes the homeless man, Ty locks himself inside a truck with half the amount.

"Armored" is an action movie about an almost perfect plan to heist two armored trucks by the security guards that should protect the transported money. The key character is the ambiguous Ty, a man that is facing financial difficulties in his private life that accept to participate in the heist but betrays his friends. Therefore, the hero of "Armored" is actually a traitor that is rewarded in the end. This unlikable character should have been better developed in the screenplay to give a better explanation for his despicable attitude (the betrayal). On the other hand, the naiveness of the five experienced men inviting a newcomer on the eve of the scheduled date of a heist sounds very unreasonable. It is impressive how fat Laurence Fishburne is. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Assalto ao Carro Blindado" ("Heist of the Armored Car")

I'm not here to tell you "Armored" is Kubrickian, Hitchcockian or Fellini-esquire. Nope. Referenced directors are more like Don Siegel ("Charlie Varrick") and Walter Hill ("The Warriors"). Those two helmers didn't fool around with niceties like putting women in their movies. No skirts need apply. They unapologetically made guy movies. Guns, lots of guns. Men met violent death with a twitch of the jaw. Their movies were like a sap to the head. You want a friend? Get a dog.

"Armored" is so a guy movie. Dueling armored trucks? Bloody gunshot wounds? Exploding money? If that doesn't get the lizard part of your brain excited, then stay away.

At 88 minutes, "Armored" is all muscle without an ounce of fat. We meet six security guards who drive armored trucks, three per truck. The six, led by Matt Dillon, scheme up a fake hijack involving two trucks. Their mission one day is to deliver $42 million from the federal reserve (I think). The idea is to drive both trucks to a warehouse, stash the cash, then stage a hijack. Sure, the cops will suspect them, but if they stick together they'll get through it.

Trouble is, one of the six, played by Columbus Short, is a holdout. At first. But he faces eviction. And he's the guardian for his messed up younger brother. He needs cash bad.

Matt Dillon cajoles, pleads, persuades the holdout. No blood on anyone's hands. A clean getaway. All good, no bad. You'll be rich forever. Blue skies smiling at you ...

Right.

Everything goes to hell, of course. It's one damned thing after another and the stakes keep going up. And it almost all happens claustrophobically inside an abandoned warehouse somewhere in Los Angeles. In fact, the movie goes out of its way to project a backdrop of industrial urban decay. I happen to like industrial urban decay.

Kudos to Matt Dillon, who plays the top bad dog. He goes from charming to disappointed to frustrated to outraged to totally effing insane in the course of the movie. Love that guy.

Also, credit is due to the menacing, throbbing, blistering and totally sinister electronic soundtrack by John Murphy. I am guessing he's heard a few Tangerine Dream records.

Also, it's surprising that this is a PG-13 movie. I caught one — one! — f-bomb in this entire movie about violent tough-guy robbers. On some level, I like that. Take the kids.

The director is Nimrod Antal, a Hungarian who made a fine noir set in the Budapest subway system called "Kontroll." Screenwriter is an out-of-nowhere guy called James V. Simpson.

A lot of the people in this movie are just starting out. I am willing to bet the esteem given to this movie will rise as time goes on and these filmmakers advance in their careers.

Sandwiched between his VACANCY and PREDATORS, ARMORED is director Nimrod Antal's best film, although to be fair that isn't saying much. It's one of those single-location action movies with a relatively low budget (by Hollywood standards), most of which has been spent on assembling an ensemble cast of tough-guy actors. Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne and Fred Ward, all of whom have appeared in great movies, are in supply here, albeit in supporting roles.

It's also a chance to find out what happened to SCREAM's Skeet Ulrich, if anybody cares these days. Sadly, there are two problems with ARMORED; the first is the no-name lead Columbus Short, a guy whose acting skills are pretty insipid, so you don't really care much about whether his character wins or loses. The second is the PG-13 rating, which eliminates the kind of hard-hitting violence of the early DIE HARDs that this film so desperately needs.

Saying that, it turns out to be a pretty entertaining little thriller. The storyline is basic in the extreme, but I'm a sucker for these single-location movies and in some ways the simplicity of the plot is more appealing than something in which the plotting is overdone, like MAN ON A LEDGE. The narrative is lean, pared-down and propelled by some good, surprising twists thrown into the mix. All of the big names give solid performances, and if it does get a little cheesy at times then that's par for the course. I'd rather a film be cheesy and entertaining than realistic and dull!

Armored tells the story of a few armored truck company workers who conjure a plan to steal 42 million dollars that they were suppose to transport. To pull this off, they need Ty, an Iraq war veteran who just joined the company. At first, Ty refuses to be a part of the scheme, but he desperately needs the money since he's in risk of loosing his house and his little brother might be taken away from him. Ty ends up agreeing with the all thing, but not before Mike, the leader of the guards, promise that no one will get hurt... Armored is a fast-moving heist film with a good amount of action and some unpredictable twists. Obviously, everyone can tell that things are not going to go smoothly but still, there are a few surprises and the film doesn't become predictable at any point. Looking at the cast of Armored, which is comprised by very well known actors like Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburn and Matt Dillon, one might expect a tremendous film given the quality of the actors, but that's not case. I'm not saying it's a bad film, it's not by any means but, it's not a film with depth either. If you're expecting something like that you'll be disappointed. This is a popcorn movie, there's not much to think about here, just turn your brain off and enjoy it. The acting was average with the exception of Matt Dillon who really stood out as the leader of the "bad guys". His character is a mean son of a bitch and Dillon played the role perfectly. The film fell a bit short in the third act though because the ending seemed a bit rushed. Bottom line is, Armored is entertaining and therefor a good watch, just make sure you know what kind film you're about to see.

6/10

I was disappointed. I usually like heist movies but this one - "Armored" - was not smart, if you want a heist movie where they put together a great plan for the heist and there is tension to see if the plan will succeed and if they can get away with the money this is not that type of movie.

The heist plan in this film is one that was put together by dumb brutes and is not a focus of the movie. The movie is all about bloody action scenes with guns. Probably the biggest star in the movie is Laurence Fishburne, and he has put on a lot of weight and gotten fat, and none of the acting is all that good for any of the characters. But even as a dumb action movie it isn't anything special or worth seeing.