Review: Armored
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No one goes into a movie such as Armored expecting it to be brilliantly written or even necessarily have a semi-plausible plot. Generally it is all about the entertainment factor and whether the characters and story developments are compelling. Unfortunately Armored does not excel in any area and comes off as predictable and completely implausible.
The story centers on a group of armored car workers who attempt to steal $42 million by concocting a story about being ambushed while hiding the money for themselves. When a homeless man witnesses them stashing the money everything starts spiraling out of control.
One of the biggest problems with the movie is the lack of background on the majority of the characters. Other than one, who has some back story with a younger brother which is just set up to use later, all the characters are just there as pieces and nothing more. That makes it difficult to judge their actions and makes the turns they take seem out of place.
The dialogue is painful early on with their banter that is supposed to be humorous guy talk that shows how they’ve bonded. There is nothing in the movie tough to show how or why they developed the motivation to go through with it. Once they get into the action the dialogue gets more natural but the situation gets more ridiculous.
Films that have heists as a central focus will usually see each piece play out with an understanding of the end-game. That isn’t the case in Armored as there is no discussion about how they will explain the situation to the police or how they will prevent being caught with the money afterwards when all eyes would be on them. The main character is about to lose his house, is begging for more shifts, and then all of the sudden after this would just make payments and no one would ask questions?
As the plan started to go downhill fast the characters never accepted the reality that there was no way out. Every incident, starting with a chase between the two trucks in an industrial area, ruined any possible explanation they could have given as to how they got robbed. When bodies started piling up that made it worse but they still acted as though they would just explain it off easily and all they worried about was the clock. It really made no sense in that I was conscious of everything that didn’t add up but they just overlooked those things.
Armored is still decently entertaining though a severely flawed heist movie. It just takes a lot to overlook the plot holes, lack of character definition, and predictable outcome.
Rating: 
