Armored

Sandwiched between his VACANCY and PREDATORS, ARMORED is director Nimrod Antal's best film, although to be fair that isn't saying much. It's one of those single-location action movies with a relatively low budget (by Hollywood standards), most of which has been spent on assembling an ensemble cast of tough-guy actors. Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne and Fred Ward, all of whom have appeared in great movies, are in supply here, albeit in supporting roles.

It's also a chance to find out what happened to SCREAM's Skeet Ulrich, if anybody cares these days. Sadly, there are two problems with ARMORED; the first is the no-name lead Columbus Short, a guy whose acting skills are pretty insipid, so you don't really care much about whether his character wins or loses. The second is the PG-13 rating, which eliminates the kind of hard-hitting violence of the early DIE HARDs that this film so desperately needs.

Saying that, it turns out to be a pretty entertaining little thriller. The storyline is basic in the extreme, but I'm a sucker for these single-location movies and in some ways the simplicity of the plot is more appealing than something in which the plotting is overdone, like MAN ON A LEDGE. The narrative is lean, pared-down and propelled by some good, surprising twists thrown into the mix. All of the big names give solid performances, and if it does get a little cheesy at times then that's par for the course. I'd rather a film be cheesy and entertaining than realistic and dull!