Armored : Movie Review


Armored is a taut thriller directed by Nimród Antal from a script by James V. Simpson. Its subject is an inside job heist of an armored truck transport. The criminals are the security detail, two three-man crews: Mike, Baines, and Ty, played respectively by Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, and Columbus Short; and Quinn, Palmer, and Dobbs, played by Jean Reno, Amaury Nolasco, and Skeet Ulrich. The film’s other significant characters are a sheriff’s deputy (Milo Ventimiglia), the shift boss (Fred Ward) at the security company, and Ty’s younger brother Jimmy (Andre Kinney).

The film’s hero is Ty, the newcomer in the group. A recently discharged veteran who assumed legal guardianship of teenaged Jimmy when their parents died of illness, he is in serious financial difficulties. He was recruited to join the company, and at the last minute the heist, by Mike, a longtime close friend of his father. Mike sold the plan as a guaranteed foolproof, nobody-gets-hurt big-time score. However, predictably, something goes wrong almost at the outset, setting off a disastrous, deadly chain reaction. What happens after the plan goes south has the inevitability of tragedy: character dictates – and is revealed by – the very different choices the men make.

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Author : Helen Geib