Armored

Armored is pretty standard Hollywood action fare. It doesn't try and do anything spectacularly different or new, but it manages to be a relatively pleasing film if you want some decent action with a fairly good narrative and a cast that performs reasonably well. It’s a somewhat typical heist-gone-wrong film with a tiny twist to the traditional tale, but one which has been seen before.
Early in the game there was a refreshing performance from Laurence Fishburne, rather than the usual broody and somewhat dark characters I seem to see him playing, he actually laughs!

The chemistry between the main gang in the film was decent, typical boys club mentality until everything goes wrong, and it all works well, although it comes across as being somewhat standard and predictable.
Jean Reno was, in my opinion, woefully under-utilised, and there were some moments where Columbus Short didn't quite succeed, but for the most part he managed a solid lead performance, if not spectacular. The writing allowed a degree of sympathy for his situation and while the writing managed to explain his feelings, the acting didn’t always manage to fully explore the role and mentality of the character and there were scenes where Short almost seemed uncomfortable.

The story was well told, and relatively engaging despite the predictability, and the character narratives and decisions were explained fairly well so the whole thing managed to feel cohesive and detailed enough that it all made sense. It even managed to throw in a typical feel-good ending, to a point, although it by no means detracted from the overall tone of the film, but again it was a somewhat clichéd finale which helped make the film feel somewhat uninspired.

There isn’t a huge amount to say other than if you are looking for a moderately entertaining B movie level film with some nice action, it fits the bill. It’s not a non-stop thrill ride, but it has enough action and some thought provoking scenes, it didn’t really go wrong anywhere. It kept itself short enough that it didn’t ever feel like it was dragging on, but never managed to escape from being average.