Armored

In contrast to my other blogs, this one is going to be paltry. A movie of this caliber does not deserve that much more time devoted to it. It is not special, in fact, this movie could be understood while someone exercises or plays a 2 on 2 hoop game

Times must be tough when this many credible actors come to terms and agree on a script that seems to be written by a Freshman in High School. One not in HISP at that.

Laurence Fishburne is an actor of immense talent, this movie was a waste of his time. It appears the powerful roles in line with The Matrix and certainly Mission Impossible III are behind him. In this film, he is Baines and like the others, he is an armored car employee. He is surrounded by Matt Dillon who plays Mike Cochrone. The are reinforced by The Professional and Ronin's Jean Reno who plays Quinn. Prison Break and Transformer's Amaury Nolasco is Palmer. They are a tight unit and agree to pull off a heist of extreme proportions. But the viewer already knows this before they even have bought the rip off and calorie loaded pop corn.

The hero of this movie is Ty Hackett. Columbus Short is the actor who was probably the only on the set happy to be there. This is a step up for him and I am sure he liked being surrounded by all this talent. When he was not asking for autographs he was trying to figure out how to get himself out of this mess his character was in. It seemed every character was having financial issues. This monetary quandary made this plan all the more palatable.

They were scheduled to deliver $42 million or so to the bank. They decided to drive the money out to a run down industrial site and make off with the money. But the conscious of Hacket is what makes this a movie. He barricades and locks himself inside one of the armored trucks and tries to operate the technology this new truck is equipped with. But oh what do we do know, they are in a dark zone. Nothing radiates.

What happens for the next 45 minutes falls under the suspense category. But is really under the makeshift, languid, and decrepid one. There is some action, some shooting, mixed in with terrible editing, even worse acting, and a frail musical score.

Hacket eventually is able to notify the police, in the ruckus, his former allies are killed or in one case, kill themselves. Hacket, who was also dealing in a poor economic situation, because of his valor, may be eligible for some time of reward.

The good news is that the characters who once were in a sluggish financial state are no longer in this condition since they were mere mortals. All their problems have been transfered to someone else now while they are on their way to meet their maker. They tried to outsmart the system but were fatally foiled.

It goes without saying this movie does not rank that high in any scoring system.

I allocate this movie one star.*