armored

one of my movie going partners called me up and said he wanted to see, "armored".  As justification, he quoted the new york times as calling it "a b movie with soul". but he admitted the real reason he wanted to see it was that the director's name is nimrod.  nimrod antal. i felt i had seen the whole movie when i watched the trailer, but it was his turn to pick the movie. so, reluctantly i went.

i was pleasantly surpised when at the end i found that i actually liked this film. it offers the usual suspects of b caper movies- matt dillon, lawrence fishburne, fred ward, skeet ulrich and jean reno- all of whom are usually scene chewers (except reno). i always think fishburne plays all his parts as othello would- othello as a fry cook, othello as a bank robber, othello as a bank guard. skeet ulrich has been called the poor man's johnny depp for the resemblance and his own over the top acting. (amaury nolasco plays his partner and also stars with the real depp in the upcoming "the rum diary".  i wonder if he got confused...)  fred ward is posey- he hits his marks, stops, poses, then delivers his lines. matt dillon, well face it- the man looks like a muppet version of himself- with that flat forehead, sticky hair, bushy independently active eyebrows and huge mouth that jerks back his head everytime he talks.  the unwitting hero of the film is a relative newbie, columbus short, who had to keep it believable- a war hero turned superman under impossible situations. in this film they all did very good jobs- a feat i attribute to the director.

i loved some of the camerawork- the aerial view of a buick regal for instance, it's beautiful car with awesome lines that just needs to be seen from above.  there is also a running scene that follows our hero through portholes.  the editing is tight, the suspense is on a short leash that tugs the story along at just the right pace. this is one movie that is better than the trailer. 

good job nimrod.