(USA) Directed by Nimrod Antal. Stars Matt Dillon, Columbus Short, Laurence Fishburne and Jean Reno. Continuing.

The best laid plans are often a bit like true love—rarely do they unfold as smoothly as you’d like them to. Or as MacGyver used to say, “The tighter your plan, the more likely you are to run into something unpredictable.” Clearly, the rogue security officers in Armored do not share his prescience because their supposedly idiot-proof plan (i.e. to rob their own security transport company of $42 million without hurting anyone) goes horribly wrong—despite assurances from Matt Dillon’s character that no one would get hurt.
Armored is the kind of movie that should come with a remote control so you can skip the boring parts (i.e. the entire expository first act) and get straight to the action. We’re not going to waste ink here so if you want a more detailed explanation of the story, watch the trailer. Suffice to say, the characters feel like they’ve been pulled straight from Rent-A-Heist-Character.com. There’s the oily manipulative leader (Dillon), trigger-happy hothead (Fishburne), down-on-his-luck Iraq war vet with an obnoxious kid brother (Short) and three others (Reno, Amaury Nolasco and an unrecognizable Skeet Ulrich) who bring up the rear. Oh, and Milo Ventimiglia plays a cop who gets shot and spends the majority of the movie clutching his stomach.
Having said that, if you can stay awake long enough for the crap to hit the fan, Armored can be pretty entertaining. Antal has eschewed overly edited, CGI-enhanced action sequences in favor of an old-school aesthetic reminiscent of the action movies of the early 80s—and it works. Combined with cinematographer Andrzej Sekula’s (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs) gritty metallic palette, it creates some genuine moments of suspense in the movie. Also, credit must be given where it’s due; despite the bare-bones nature of the script, Dillon and Short do turn in admirably compelling performances as buddies whose friendship sours when their heist plan tanks. Only thing is, you’ve got to wait 40 minutes or so for anything worthwhile to happen.
2.5/5 stars by Lisa-Ann Lee