Plot
A newbie guard for an armored truck company is coerced by his veteran coworkers to steal a truck containing $42 million. But a wrinkle in their supposedly foolproof plan divides the group, leading to a potentially deadly resolution.

Release Year: 2009

Rating: 5.6/10 (15,527 voted)

Critic's Score: 50/100

Director: Nimród Antal

Stars: Columbus Short, Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne

Storyline
The war veteran, Ty Hackett, is hired to work as security guard by the Eagle Shield Security where his old friend Mike Cochroone works. Ty is having financial difficulties after the death of his father, and is raising his brother Jimmy alone. He teams up with Mike's brother-in-law, Baines, and their coworkers Quinn, Palmer and Dobbs. One night, Mike invites Ty to join in the robbery of two armored trucks transporting forty-two million dollars. The reluctant Ty accepts after Mike promises that nobody would be hurt in the heist.

Cast:
Matt Dillon - Mike Cochrane
Jean Reno - Quinn
Laurence Fishburne - Baines
Amaury Nolasco - Palmer
Fred Ward - Duncan Ashcroft
Milo Ventimiglia - Eckehart
Skeet Ulrich - Dobbs
Columbus Short - Ty Hackett
Andre Kinney - Jimmy Hackett (as Andre Jamal Kinney)
Andrew Fiscella - Dispatcher #1
Nick Jameson - Homeless Man
Glenn Taranto - Joe the Cook
Lorna Raver - Child Welfare Agent
Garry Guerrier - Federal Guard
Robert Harvey - Bank Guard

Taglines: They have a plan that's going to catch EVERYBODY off-guard.

Official Website: Official site [France] | Official site [Japan] |

Release Date: 4 December 2009

Filming Locations: California Steel Industries - 14000 San Bernardino Avenue, Fontana, California, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $6,511,128 (USA) (6 December 2009) (1915 Screens)

Gross: $15,988,876 (USA) (10 January 2010)

Runtime: 88 min

Trivia:
There is only one woman who has a speaking role in the movie: the child protection agent played by Lorna Raver. Her role is shorter than 4 minutes. Elizabeth Rivera has a non-speaking role.

Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the beginning of the movie, after they pick up the money from the bank, you see the light is red (right side of screen) as they continue to drive through the streets without stopping.

Quotes:
[first lines]
Ty Hackett: Rise and shine, let's go... You gonna miss the bus, get up.

Cool B-movie badassery

Rating: 7/10

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.

Comments: