Movie Review: Armored

Armored (2009) 

Directed by Nimrod Antal

Written by James V. Simpson

Starring Matt Dillon, Columbus Short, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Skeet Ulrich

Release Date December 4th, 2009 

Published December 4th, 2009 

Streaming Rental via Amazon Prime 

Armored is the latest attempt by Hollywood to look engaged and aware of the current economic condition. At its center is a character making less than a living wage and about to lose his home and the desperate lengths he considers going to in order to save everything.

Columbus Short stars in Armored as Ty a former Iraq war veteran who returns home to a crumbling neighborhood and a teenage brother to take care of. The bank is looking to foreclose on Ty's house and the only job he can get is a part time gig as a guard working for an armored car company.

Ty's pal Mike (Matt Dillon) got him the job and does what he can to help him out. Mike has a plan, with the help of 4 other guards they will set up a robbery of their own trucks. 42 million dollars can go a long way toward solving Ty's problems but he only agrees to go along after a threat by child services to take his little brother away.

The plan comes off without a hitch, initially. Hiding the trucks in an abandoned industrial building the crew begins off-loading the cash when Baines (Laurence Fishburne) spots a homeless guy hiding in the building. He kills the guy and Ty realizes that things have gone too far. He locks himself in one of the trucks and sets off the alarm to try and draw attention. A cop (Milo Ventimiglia) does arrive and he too is shot. 

Ty makes an effort to save the cop and stop the bad guys and that is where Armored gets its juice. Directed by Nimrod Antal, Armored gets off to an exceptionally slow start but once it picks up some speed it gets pretty entertaining. Columbus Short is a likable actor who holds the screen well as well as our hero. Matt Dillon as the villain is backed up well  by Laurence Fishburne, Skeet Ulrich and Jean Reno.

As for how timely Armored is? The idea of a guy willing to rob an armored truck to save his house is more of a motivational conceit than a comment on our times. Armored isn't much related to our current economic conditions as it as a coincidence. This film has been made a few times before and could work just as well in a prosperous economy; there's always someone who’s struggling.

Armored is an old school action flick with good chase scenes, gunplay and a strong hero. Director Nimrod Antal takes a little while to get things going but the final act moves fast toward a satisfying action flick conclusion. If everything is tied up a little too neatly; call it a function of modern pop entertainment, modern audiences hate a down ending.

Movie Review Scream

Scream (1996)

Directed by Wes Craven

Written by Kevin Williamson 

Starring Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lillard, Courtney Cox, David Arquette

Release Date December 26th, 1996

Published December 25th, 2016

“This is life, it’s not a movie” says Sidney. “Sure it is Sid, it’s all one great big movie… you just don’t get to pick your genre” says Billy. Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich in the 1996 horror classic "Scream."

It's a Scream, Baby 

The quote above is a nod toward what made the original "Scream" such a…. well, a scream back in 1996. Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson’s acute study of how much movies have become part of everyday American life; and especially aware of the horror film’s place in the lives of the teens who are it’s core audience.

Casey Becker is the picture of white, suburban safety in the unspoiled splendor of upper middle class home when she receives an increasingly disturbing series of phone calls. The calls are coming from a man who wants to play a game. Casey will answer trivia questions about horror movies and whether or not she gets them right, she will be a horror movie victim.

A nod to Hitchcock 

This is the prologue to "Scream," a 13 minute mini-movie featuring a major movie star. Director Wes Craven ingeniously cast Drew Barrymore, just on the cusp of her comeback after years of personal troubles following her too much too soon rise to fame in her childhood.

Barrymore is cast in homage to Hitchcock’s use of Janet Leigh in "Psycho." Moviegoers in 1960 were blown away when Leigh was murdered half way into "Psycho" leaving the movie bereft of its star. In a nod to our growing culture of A.D.D, Wes Craven eliminated his star before the opening credits rolled.

Big breasted bimbos who run up the stairs when they should run out the front door

That’s just the beginning of the genius of "Scream" which turn horror movie conventions on their ear by allowing characters to be hyper-aware of said conventions and then almost comically at a loss when they are unable to escape the same fate as the characters they so richly mock.

Neve Campbell takes over for Barrymore as the star of "Scream" playing Sidney Prescott who, it just so happens, lost her mother to a brutal murder almost a year to the day that Casey Becker was murdered. Now, with the anniversary approaching, Sidney finds herself the target of a killer as the same masked man who tortured and murdered Casey sets his sights on Sidney.

A cast that is a cut above 

Campbell is exceptional in the role of Sidney combining virginal innocence with Jamie Lee Curtis’s flair for dramatics. Also well cast are Courtney Cox as an uber-bitch journalist, Rose McGowan as Tatum, Sidney’s protective best friend and David Arquette as Tatum’s doofusy brother Dewey, a police officer who never really acts like much of a police officer.

The suspects in "Scream" are equally well cast. There is the ultra-creepy Skeet Ulrich as Sidney’s boyfriend whose suspect timing makes him a prime suspect early on. Matthew Lillard as Tatum’s maladjusted boyfriend with a tendency for enjoying all of the carnage a little too much and, finally, there is Jamie Kennedy as Randy, the pseudo-narrator of the film. Randy is a movie nerd who works at a video store and knows all of the rules for surviving a horror movie.

Scream is actually scary 

All of these tremendously well cast roles combine with a terrific script and Wes Craven's ingenious direction to deliver darkly humorous moments of self awareness and honest to goodness frights that honor the best of the horror genre. Yes, "Scream" is something of a send up but when things get bloody, the laughs are replaced by very strong horror movie tensions.