Armored: Not Your Typical Anti-War Film
Armored doesn’t look like your typical anti-war film from Hollywood’s dream machine. The story of security guards stealing the loot they’re assigned to protect plays out far away from any Middle Eastern battlefield.
But you don’t have to look too closely to see an Iraq War slam or two mixed with the generic on-screen mayhem.
The new film, which landed in sixth place at the box office over the weekend, follows an Iraq War veteran who can’t raise enough funds to pay his mortgage. So he does what anyone would do in his position — swipe the money he’s assigned to guard along with his unsavory comrades.
Ty (Columbus Short) just got back from serving in the Iraq War, returning safe and sound and with a Silver Star in hand for his heroism. He finds work as a security guard in charge of armored transports, but the death of his parents has left him drowning in debt. And if he can’t scratch up enough money to pay off his bills, he could lose custody of his little brother.
The kid is a handful, skipping classes repeatedly and tagging the family kitchen with spray paint swiped from his school.
Ty’s fellow guards represent his new family, albeit a dysfunctional one which plays cruel practical jokes that would get its members booted from some fraternities. And, like any family, they want to help their own.
So they invite Ty in on a plan to steal $42 million they’re supposed to protect. The guards will blame the theft on fictitious robbers, and they’ll walk away with millions.
“No one will get hurt, right?” Ty asks Mike (Matt Dillon), his closest friend on the guard unit. Not a chance, Mike reassures him.
The Keystone Kops could pull off a caper better than these clods. Ty is left scrambling to shield himself from the shards of a plan blown to bits.
Armored focuses mainly on the heist, but the initial scenes let screenwriter James V. Simpson dabble in some expected conversations regarding war.
“You should be proud of what you did over there,” Mike tells Ty, to which he replies, “I’m not. A lot of innocent people died.”
And it’s hardly a shock to see former soldiers struggling financially upon their return.
Director Nimrod Antal (who previously gave us the effective Vacancy and is in charge of the forthcoming Predators) can’t make much out of Simpson’s screenplay, replete with such gems as “the more things change, the more things stay the same.”
There must be something you’re good at.
The review is very good—but it concerns a movie that I am unlikely to watch anytime in the near future. I am fed up with the left-wing themes that dominate these recently released offerings. The hell with them.
“You should be proud of what you did over there,” Mike tells Ty, to which he replies, “I’m not. A lot of innocent people died.”
Yea, cause you know, war really sucks and all.
Geez, did a 5th grader write the screenplay?
not a 5th grader but someone with your like you number 3 Scotter! a second grader!!
Hmm, so enlisting in the military is bad because it puts you in debt?? How does one person having problems make the film anti war? Its not like its the movie “Brothers” or in the “Valley of Elah” which denegraded both the military and America.
Not sure whether I want to see Armored now or not.
This story line is so far fetched and ridiculous.
Why is it that actors who were not in the military want to make movies that portray veterans as criminals, and washed out dregs of society who are broke and emotionally disturbed?
I am a veteran so is my Dad, 5 Uncles, My Brother, My Grandfather, 2 Great Uncles and numerous cousins.
Guess what?
Not one is a criminal. Not one has emotional problems. Not one was sorry for a thing they did in the military. Not one is broke.
They should do a movie on how many people go to Hollywood to find a job and get hooked on drugs and commit suicide.
How many broke actors, directors, actresses with emotional problems make movies, or try to make movies and then become criminals?
I bet the list is long.
Many people know that Veterans by and large are upstanding, compassionate, hard working people. Oh but that won’t do in Hollywood because Veterans must be portrayed as losers with a deep seeded guilt from being a Man that loves Family, God, Country and served.
Want to know why these movies flop? Ask a Marine.
Give the people what they want….
Here’s some ideas for the next blockbuster:
Spector: A movie about a Hollywood Music Executive who kills a woman teases his hair, does drugs and gets a big house and a new wife named bubba.
OJ Not for just for Breakfast anymore: A Hollywood actor cuts his wife’s head off and beats the rap using the race card but goes to Vegas and gets 20 years by committing more crime.
Madoff and Me: A charming story about Hollywood geniuses falling for the largest Ponzi scam in world history reducing some of Hollywood’s military hating establishment into broke losers with emotional problems.
>>>”not a 5th grader but someone with your like you number 3 Scotter! a second grader!!”<<<
I am pretty sure you meant to equate me with a second grader but you appear to get confused going from 5 to 2. Take it a bit slower next time.
Forest, how do you know they were innocent? because they got shot Bubba. i hate to go to movies with my son because he picks them apart, this one sounds so ragged it ain’t even gonna make it to , there’s nothing to watch in the video racks so i might watch this one, category. below the Nazi zombies movies. lol