The Thrill Is Absent For Anyone Who Has Seen The Previews: Armored Flops.

The Good: Decent premise
The Bad: Poor execution, Cliche character development, Actors are typecast (as opposed to used well).
The Basics: A pretty generic action-heist film, Armored is far too predictable and populated by too many characters the viewer doesn't care about to truly enjoy.


When my partner and I managed to get into the preview screening of Armored, back before it was released, I had a moment of inappropriate laughter. My wife, at the last minute, asked what I had gotten us into and when I told her Armored, she looked at me with a blank expression. I elaborated, "The one with the armored truck guards who arrange a heist" to which she responded, "Didn't we see that already?" At that point, I laughed (as the lights in the theater went down) and with good cause; with all of the movies, especially preview screenings, we saw that year we saw an inordinate number of previews for the film. In fact, the real drawback for us was that having seen the full theatrical trailer so many times, seeing the actual film offered up no real surprises as to what happens in the movie.

This movie could have been a tense, tight action adventure film, but unfortunately, Armored, like Quarantine (reviewed here!) the year before, revealed far too much to audiences in advance and the pathetic thing is, for those who see even the thirty-second trailer, the movie is pretty much ruined. The fundamental problem with Armored is that it is simplistic and the characters, acting and plot all reflect that. The movie is intended to be stylish and human (and as an anti-capitalist, I can certainly appreciate portions of the film's moral and mood), but it belabors itself and once things go wrong, the movie quickly degenerates into the most banal "guys night out" type film where reason, empathy and any sense of quality take a backseat to gunplay, car chases and explosions.

Ty is a hardworking guy who is struggling to make ends meet as an armored car guard. He takes care of his brother, but is in danger of losing the family house to the inflexible bank. Being an upstanding citizen, he attempts to get more hours at work, but finds that in the current economic climate, armored transports are a suffering business. As his probationary period comes to an end, Ty is mortified when his armored truck is hijacked . . . by his friends in an apparent prank.

The prank is more than just a bit of hijinx between the guys; it is a test run for robbing the armored car company of one of its shipments. Led by Cochrane, who initially seems compassionate to Ty's plight, six of the guards look to take a $42 million shipment and get away. Their plan goes off remarkably well, until the group is at their safe location after the actual heist when a cop walks in on them. Most of the group is content to let the officer die, but Ty takes compassion on him and fights to keep him alive. In standing up to his coworkers, Ty ends up in a battle for survival that threatens not only him and the dying officer, but his brother!

Armored is a very basic tale of desperate people dealing with desperate situations and how their best laid (bad) plans come unraveled. Unfortunately, it seems instantly familiar and not just from the previews. First, the plot seems remarkably contrived so none of the reversals actually resonate as truly unique or impressive. Ty is an average guy who is trying to work within the system to survive only to discover just how hard times are. But when he is let in on the planned robbery, his moral core wavers in a predictable way that does not "read" right. Ty goes along with the robbery more because the plot demands it than it is in his character.

Then the movie hinges on reversals and after the initial "scare" with Ty before his probationary period is up, the movie throws the surprises at the viewer in much the same way. There are quick reversals, but because the heist goes off so easily (and so relatively early in the film) the viewer knows there has to be complications. Armored was never going to be a film where a man bemoans losing his house, robs an armored car and then simply goes and pays his bills with the stolen money. So, when the police officer walks in on the celebrating criminals, it is not surprising that he gets shot. Ty barricading himself in with the officer is also unsurprising and the conflict that follows is hard to care about.

Part of the reason for that is that the characters make little sense. Most of the characters are "types" as opposed to individuals. Ty is the poor black man trying to work his way up and protect his family who is just overrun with debts from the inflexible bank. His character is the most problematic because it is so contradictory. He doesn't turn in his coworkers (which would have given him all the hours he wanted) when they let him in on their plan, going with the plan instead. So, he's morally ambiguous. But no, he's not morally ambiguous, because he works so hard to protect the officer and his family. It never seems to cross his mind seriously that with his cut of the money he can pay all his bills, let the cop die and still have enough money to soothe his conscience.

The rest of the characters are even more bland and monolithic, which speaks poorly to the writing of screenwriter James V. Simpson. Baines is a mentor figure with a great technical mind, Quinn is an expert on the wetworks and Cochrane is pretty much a generic villain (though he is a bit more Faustian than obvious in some parts) through most of the movie. There's the wisecracking member of the bunch and as a result, the film is populated by less distinct players than it is by "action-adventure standards."

This becomes even more disappointing when one considers the casting. Prestigious actors and newer performers are given equally mediocre parts to play, but largely Armored is hampered by the way it seems to want good casting to equate to good acting. So, while the presence of Laurence Fishburne (as Baines) and Jean Reno (as Quinn) lends some apparent weight and class to the movie, the performances are well within their expected ranges of greatness. In other words, they give viewers nothing new. This is a pretty common problem with films these days and in Armored it is nowhere more egregious than its use of Matt Dillon. Dillon made it big - for me as someone who never saw the movies of the so-called "Brat Pack" - with his performance of a racist L.A.P.D. officer in Crash (reviewed here!) and he was absolutely phenomenal in the role. Director Nimrod Antal uses Dillon the exact same way, having him deliver lines with a tightlipped sense of seething anger that never makes him seem truly deep . . . or unfamiliar.

But most of the movie hinges on the performance of Columbus Short as Ty. Short play the role as deftly as the script allows, with him convincingly looking beaten down with his body language when he converses with representatives from the bank and conversely strong and proud when taking on the villains. Short has decent emotional range, though the movie eventually degenerates into him yelling, running and looking freaked out. By that point, though, the viewer is unlikely to care about either the quality of his performance or the fate of his character.

I was bored by most of Armored and I was unsurprised when others at the preview screening actually walked out. A couple seated in front of my wife and I had seemed very excited coming into the movie, but they left after the first hour. Perhaps they felt like I did; there was nothing truly new here and it was hard to care about any of the characters, despite all the fastmoving people and cars.

For other works with Laurence Fishburne, check out my reviews of:
Contagion
Predators
Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
The Matrix Revolutions
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix

4/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Redemption For The Lame: Predators Revitalizes The Franchise Surprisingly Well.

The Good: Great sense of tension, Good action/special effects, Surprisingly good acting
The Bad: A little predictable, A little light on character.
The Basics: Surprisingly engaging, Predators is dark, violent and strangely compelling as a band of humans find themselves as prey to aliens on a distant world.


In recent years, science fiction enthusiasts and action adventure film lovers have had a lot to be embarrassed about. After all, there was a franchise made rather quickly of two of the best science fiction horror and science fiction action-adventure films of the last thirty years which nearly sunk both franchises. I am speaking, of course, of Alien Vs. Predator and its sequel. But when Summer Blockbuster Season last year reached its natural fervor, Predators arrived in theaters to try to redeem the soiled franchise. No one I know was more skeptical of the movie going in than I was.

And this movie does what it sets out to do exceptionally well! Predators is not just an action-adventure film, it is a tense thriller that takes its time to develop while getting viewers invested in the characters. More than just a gory flick, like the movies that pitted humans versus the aliens and the Predators, Predators actually takes enough time to develop and make a story that is interesting, even if the protagonists are little better than the creatures hunting them. It is worth noting that it has been years since I saw Predator and the movie does a sufficient job of making newcomers to the franchise feel like they are up-to-speed. This is largely because this is not a true sequel, but rather a redirect of the franchise and it works to reboot interest and enthusiasm for future projects.

Confused and isolated, a small group of humans wake up in a forest. They quickly realize they are not on Earth and that their lives are very much in danger. As they explore their surroundings, they cautiously learn about one another. Royce steps forward inadvertently as the natural leader of the group, in part by virtue of being the best armed at the time, in part because he instantly realizes everyone’s lives are in danger. Royce is a mercenary and he quickly deduces that the others with him are the vicious dregs of Earth society, including snipers, hitmen, death row killers and death squad gunmen. As the members of the group are killed in vicious ways and the survivors flee for their lives, Royce comes to understand that they have been brought to this planet to be killed for sport and he essentially accepts that fate.

But in their fleeing, Royce and the few survivors who remain encounter Noland, an ex-Navy SEAL. Noland helps Royce survive, as the predatory aliens on the planet move in to finish their bloodsport.

Predators is a pretty basic “hunter/prey” plot, but the movie makes the formula seem new and fresh largely because there are simple thrills for the viewer in watching some of the worst elements of human society get brutally murdered. Yes, Predators plays on a very simple desire to see punishment come to bad people and at the same time, it works as a story of redemption for Royce. So, for example, there is a sense of justice when Mombasa – who was involved in death squads in Sierra Leone – meets a brutal end. But Royce does not seem as bad as the others, though Edwin seems for moments like he might be whitebread. Royce was a soldier whereas characters like Stans is a killer set to be executed and Isabelle is a paid sniper. As such, while the others are stabbed, shot, and otherwise eviscerated, the viewer comes to care about Royce.

The appearance of Noland takes a bit of suspension of disbelief, especially when one considers just how brutal the squad of predator (alien) hunters are when Royce and his group arrive. Even so, he fills a niche beyond just simply providing exposition and explanation for the current circumstances for the humans.

The effects in Predators are intense and quite impressive. With a very edgy score by John Debney, director Nimrod Antal creates a film that is tense well beyond the visual effects. The characteristic swells and stops that come with movies that have abrupt turns of fate are there, but what Debney does even better is create an unsettling sensation with the background music that is not overbearing. This is an impressive thing and it does almost as much for the film as the visual effects. As one might expect now that the novelty of seeing a Predator is gone (they have been well-merchandised in the last twenty years), Rodriguez is sure to show imaginative new predators, including ones that are more bulked up and do not die as easily as the traditional predators (which were never easy to kill anyway). The visual effects are often fast and brutal, but enough time is left so viewers can see just how horribly characters are being killed. How refreshing. There is an appropriate level of gore for a film where aliens hunt humans for sport, but more than just being gore-filled, Predators is legitimately scary.

What might surprise most audiences is that Predators features surprisingly good acting. For sure, Noland is well-portrayed by Laurence Fishburne, but that is little surprise considering the caliber of actor that he is. Noland is instantly likable because Fishburne is completely credible as a former Navy SEAL. The one who is surprisingly deep in his performance is Topher Grace. Yes, Topher Grace rocks Predators because he has a very layered performance and he does more with his eye movements and body language than most of the other actors do with their lines. Grace plays Edwin, a physician who seems out of place among the trained killers, but Grace makes the character credible as his part progresses. Unfortunately, to truly write about how good Grace is is to undermine the surprise that comes with Edwin’s character and I’ll not do that.

Also excellent is Adrien Brody. Brody plays Royce and for a guy better known for serious dramas and romantic movies, Brody becomes incredible – and credible – as Royce. First, he looks the part. No longer is Brody dominated by his nose; in this film he is a muscular man who walks with power and confidence in a way I’ve never seen him play in any other film. Brody is able to sell the layers of his character, but more than anything he seems surprisingly credible as both a former military officer and as a mercenary.

Ultimately, Predators will not win any big awards, but it is surprisingly engaging and more scary than it is outright gory and that is a treat for anyone who has suffered through the last two installments that had anything to do with the predator aliens. And yes, the title is a double entendre and there is something to be said for humans being the aliens in this one and hunted without the home field advantage. While the humans may have predatory instincts, what is arguably most terrifying about Predators is how the aliens selected their prey and what it means when people this ruthless cannot save themselves!

A fun summer action-horror flick, if nothing else.

For other science fiction or horror films, please check out my reviews of:
Zombieland
Iron Man 2
The Clone Wars

7/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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