"Learning Right from Wrong"

Content: -2 Discretion advised for adults.

What You Need To Know:

ARMORED is a surprisingly suspenseful crime thriller. A young veteran named Ty returns from the Iraq War to take care of his younger brother when their parents die. Ty has problems making ends meet and is investigated by Child Protective Services. To keep his house and family intact, Ty agrees to take part in a non-violent robbery scheme at the armored truck company where he works. When the heist goes awry and a homeless man is killed by one of the other men, Ty makes a choice to stop the robbery from going forward. In the end, he has to risk his life to save the lives of a policeman and, eventually, his younger brother.

ARMORED is a riveting, gratifying thriller with a great script and an excellent ensemble cast. The dramatic interplay between the characters becomes just as important as the action. Best of all, the movie has a moral, redemptive worldview encouraging viewers to root for the hero who risks his life to stop the armored truck robbery from continuing. The movie contains intense action violence and plenty of strong foul language, however, so strong caution is advised.


(BB, C, FR, LL, VV, N, A, M) Strong moral, redemptive worldview that contains some positive Christian references, including some allusions to Judas, who betrayed Jesus, and Pontius Pilate washing blood off his hands and thus trying to wash away his guilt, but the Christian aspects could have been more overt, stronger, and more positive, and man eventually is rewarded for doing good but not punished for making a big mistake earlier in the story before he comes to his senses and re-discovers his moral conscience, so this could be seen as an antinomian falsehood; 16 obscenities (including some “h” words, some “d” words, some “s” words, and two “f” words) and six strong profanities; strong intense action violence with some blood includes man shot to death, man shot in stomach and is in danger of bleeding to death, fighting, armored truck chases another armored truck, a couple of vehicle crashes, man kills another man by stabbing him to death (stabbing is not actually shown but implied), man’s hand is wounded while trying to break a tough lock, troubled man commits suicide by jumping off a building after asking another man if God will forgive him, and teenager’s face is bruised, implying he has been beaten; no sexual content; brief upper male nudity; alcohol use at a celebration; no smoking; and, robbery goes awry and is eventually stopped, betrayal, and it becomes clear that orphaned teenager has lied to his older brother who takes care of him.

More Detail:

ARMORED is a surprisingly good, suspenseful crime thriller with a gifted ensemble cast that does a first-rate job. It’s definitely one of the best, most dramatic heist movies in recent years. Even better, it has a strong moral, redemptive worldview where one man decides to take a stand and do the right thing, risking his own life.

ARMORED stars relative newcomer Columbus Short as Ty Hackett, a rookie guard at an armored car company that transports money. Ty recently returned from the Iraq War, with a Silver Star, when his parents died. Now, he takes care of his younger brother, Jimmy, in their family home, but Ty’s having trouble making ends meet. Ty’s mentor at Eagle Shield Security is Mike Cochrane (played by Matt Dillon), who was himself mentored by Ty’s late father. Mike promises Ty that he won’t let the bank take the house.

One night after celebrating the end of Ty’s probation working as a guard, Mike tells Ty that he and their working buddies have a plan to rob $42 million from a huge annual bank transfer the very next day. The plan is to fake a heist by other unknown criminals, hide the money, and burn the armored trucks. Ty says no. Mike begs him to sleep on it. If Ty is not at the bus stop where Mike picks him up to take him to work, Mike will assume that Ty doesn’t want in on the planned heist.

When Ty gets home, however, he discovers a lady from Child Protective Services visiting the house. Much to his chagrin, he learns that Jim, who has gotten in trouble with the law about painting beautiful murals on public property, has lied about going to school regularly. The lady has also learned that Ty is having trouble paying the mortgage.

The next day, Ty doesn’t show up at the bus stop. He does, however, show up at the last minute at work and decides to take part in the heist. Mike assures Ty that no one will get hurt.

Ty, Mike, and their other co-workers in on the plan pick up the $42 million at the local Federal Reserve garage. After connecting by radio, they take the money to an abandoned industrial complex, located in an area where radio signals are disrupted.

While hiding the money from one of two trucks in a large indoor pipe, they spy a homeless man watching them. The men chase after the homeless guy with their guns. Ty tries to protect the man, but one of the guys, a volatile man named Baines (played by Laurence Fishburne in one of several excellent performances) shoots him dead.

Extremely upset by this turn of events, Ty manages to burn the money already stashed in the pipe and take the truck with the rest of the money. An exciting chase scene ends back at the same warehouse. Still locked in the truck, Ty next turns on the siren to alert people. Mike and the others eventually disable it, but not before one nearby cop hears it.

The tension builds as Mike and the others try to break into the truck, and the cop drives by to investigate. Mike increases the stakes by sending one of the men to Ty’s house to use Ty’s brother as a hostage.

ARMORED is a riveting crime thriller. It has a great script with excellent dialogue that’s often very dramatic. The whole cast does a great job. The dramatic interplay between the characters becomes just as important as the action in the plot.

Best of all, ARMORED has a strong moral, redemptive worldview. Although the money tempts Ty, he eventually does the right thing. In fact, he even risks his own life for the lives of the homeless man, the cop, and, eventually, his little brother. Ty is rewarded for his heroism and bravery, though he does get away with joining the robbery scheme in the first place.

ARMORED is a unique heist thriller in today’s pagan society. Most heist movies encourage viewers to identify with the thieves. ARMORED, however, encourages viewers to root for Ty in his attempt to stop the thieves and save the policeman’s life. The movie does contain, however, strong intense violence and foul language, including a couple “f” words and several strong profanities, so strong caution is recommended.

The theatrical version of ARMORED is rated PG-13, but home video viewers might want to be careful about the eventual DVD, which may contain an R-rated or an unrated version with more strong foul language.

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