Now In Theaters - Armored

Every once in a while comes a movie so packed with star power you can't wait to get out and see it... only to see it and say to yourself it really wasn't what you thought it would be. This movie boasts a star studded cast featuring the likes of Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, Columbus Short, Jean Reno, Skeet Ulrich and Amaury Nolasco. Too bad none of them were really needed to make this film. Me and 5 or 6 of my buddies could have made this movie and it would have had the exact same effect.

The story is about a group of guards that work for an armored car company. Ty Hackett, played by Short, is a war veteran who comes home to a little brother that he has to raise on his own due to his father passing away. With the help of a good friend, Mike who is played by Dillon, Ty lands a job with the security guards. Ty is very hard up for cash because he is on the verge of losing his father's house and could possibly lose custody of his brother if this happens. All of the answers to Ty's problems can be solved when Mike approaches Ty with a scheme to split $42 million bucks between 6 guards. Mike assures Ty that the plan can go off without a hitch, and without anyone getting hurt. After all "there are no bad guys." So what could go wrong? You guessed it... EVERYTHING!!!

The story actually wasn't all that bad. It's just that the action wasn't all that great, the character development wasn't there... and the movie spent too much time in one area. Now it's not necessarily a bad thing to be in one area for a long time. It worked great in 'Saw', 'Cast Away' and 'Phonebooth'. But this one reminded me of the movie 'Trespass' more than anything else. And for those of you that remember that terrible movie, I'm sure you will understand that is NOT a good thing. Plus, it's not that the acting was bad... it was just very, very average. There were no characters that could not have been replaced with small names and the performance been hurt in any way. For example... only Laurence Fishburne could be Morpheus. Only Jean Reno could be Leon (from 'The Professional') Only Russell Crowe could be Maximus. You swap out one of those guys for a mediocre actor and the movie suffers dramatically. You could swap out this entire cast and we still would have seen the same film. The big names were good for the box office draw... but not so much for the quality of the film.

I am going to give this one a 6 out of 10. The movie wasn't that bad per se, but it was a HUGE let down considering the cast. A cast like this should get you a 'Usual Suspects' type of results. When you instead get 'The Air I Breathe'... there is a problem. The movie is worth watching, just not worth spending 10 bucks to go see. When it comes to Redbox or Netflix, check it out... but no need to rush out and see this one.