Solid but unspectacular genre film
Image Courtesy of IMPawards.com
Director: Nimrod Antal
Notable Cast: Columbus Short, Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Skeet Ulrich, Milo Vermiglia
Nimrod Antal made his American debut with Vacancy, a solid if unspectacular horror film that didn’t aspire to grand heights and moviegoers responded accordingly. But it made a profit, thus giving Antal another shot at directing a studio film with similarly budgeted Armored.
Hackett (Columbus Short) is raising his younger brother after the death of his parents, working full time as a security guard. With the bank threatening to foreclose on his home, and child services threatening to put his brother into foster care, a crazy plan by his co-workers seems rational. Cochrane (Matt Dillon), Quinn (Jean Reno) and Baines (Lawrence Fishburne) want to pull off a robbery. They transport cash for banks and they plan on pulling off a heist of the biggest transport of the year. All seems to be going well when a murder goes down and a cop (Milo Vermiglia) gets drawn into it, triggering Hackett’s moral instincts. Fighting back while locked inside one of the trucks, Hackett is drawn into a standoff with the robbers leading to a violent conclusion.
For Antal it’s a nice warm up of a genre picture, especially as he readies Predators for next year, and he shows all the potential of a top flight director. At a smooth 88 minutes, Armored doesn’t overstay its welcome nor does it end earlier then it could. For what he’s given he has crafted a capable genre picture, telling a tight and controlled story. This is a story about good men who have crossed the line for a once in a lifetime score, and the one amongst them who knows it’s wrong and acts accordingly.
He’s helped, once again, by having a cast that’s perfect for what he’s trying to do. Given the top of the second tier of character actors, Antal uses them in perfect doses. Hackett and Dillon are unlikely leading men as the two main characters of the film but Antal plays to their strengths as actors. Hackett has a quiet strength to him and is allowed to use more non verbal communication while Dillon gets to chew on a little scenery. He makes for an interesting villain of sorts; none of the characters in the film are true villains but we see why they arrive at their respective positions. It’s an interesting juxtaposition that he handles wonderfully. With Fishburne and Reno providing ample support, Antal gets about as good a performance as he can out of his cast because of one thing: the script.
Written by a first time screenwriter, this is a conventional crime thriller that doesn’t transcend the genre. It does everything it has to, nothing more, and doesn’t reach outside the conventions and qualities a film of its ilk has to offer. It is good for what it has to do, and doesn’t make any missteps, but it doesn’t do anything special. It doesn’t have a high ceiling in terms of quality but it manages to reach it quite well.
Armored is a standard genre piece, nothing more nothing less. It’s a nice resume builder for everyone involved but isn’t a cornerstone piece.
FINAL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1-5 BUCKETS):
