“Promise me no one will get hurt.” “No one will get hurt, I promise.” Once those two sentences are uttered near the beginning of Armored, you knew just how this film was going to unfold and that despite the promise, there will be quite few fatalities. Armored, the subject of today’s review, is a heist film that is rather formulaic and predictable. Be that as it may, is is still worth a look on Blu-ray? Sort of.
Film 
Armored has a few things going for it, namely a good cast and some nice action sequences. However, the plot is totally predictable and rather pedestrian. A good heist film should have plenty of drama and a few plot twists. Armored has neither. Once they set up the basics of the cast and story, I could have written the rest of this film.
The film stars Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, Columbus Short, Skeet Ulrich and Amaury Nolasco as a group of armored car drivers for fictional company, Eagle Shield. After discussing a famous incident in armored vehicle circles where an armored car car “jacked” and the contents never accounted four, the group decides that the only thing wrong with that heist, was that the take was too small.
Following the old adage that if you are going to steal, steal big, they plan on stealing 42 million dollars while claiming that their vehicles were ambushed and torched by a group of unknown assailants. However, one member of the group Ty (Columbus Short), a decorated war veteran, has misgivings about the plan and decides to participate only due to extreme financial hardship affecting him and his brother and only after the ringleader, Mike Cochrane (Matt Dillon) promises him that no one would get hurt.
Predictably, that promise goes right out the window when they discover the presence of a homeless man as they are stashing the money in an abandoned steel mill. Things go from bad to worse worse when a sheriff’s deputy (Milo Ventimiglia) arrives on the scene after hearing one of the truck sirens. Needless to say things don’t work out so well for the after that.
The film does have some moments but not enough of them for me to given this film anything other than a lukewarm recommendation as a rental.
Video 
While I wasn’t all that impressed with the film, I was more than pleased with the video which is excellent. The film features a natural color palette with excellent levels of detail and clarity. Armored is not exactly a bright and bold looking film but is rather on the grimy side, with grays, browns and blacks the dominant colors, especially during those sequences in the abandoned steel mill, which comprise the bulk of the second half of the film. Despite the grimy and dark sequences, the film never fails to maintain a consistent level of detail and clarity.
Facial and background details are excellent as well with skin textures clearly visible as is the fabric on the uniforms and each layer of rust that covers most of the interior of the steel mill. While a good portion of the film takes place in dimly lit interiors, I was not able to detect any real significant amounts of video noise during those sequences, especially from a normal viewing distance. Shadow detail is top notch as well. All in all, this an excellent encode of some difficult material and should more than please fans of the film.
Audio
While I was impressed with the video quality, it is in the audio department where Armored really shines. The film features a fine sound design, with the surrounds aggressively used throughout the film to create an excellent sense of immersion and interior acoustics. Dynamics are superb, with crashes ad gun shots having the real sound of authenticity. Bass response is excellent as well, being tight and taut without a hint of bloat and providing the foundation that action sequences and the pulsating musical score require to pull you into the action.
Listen in particular to the sequences with the armored cars rumbling through your room with an excellent sense of realism as they pass from side to side and from the front to the rear of your room. In particular, I draw your attention to the chase scene near the end of the film, where the armored car moves from the front of the room to the right rear of the room in a very convincing manner, culminating with a very convincing crash and final thud. The dialogue track was also well recorded and well mixed and is always front and center in the mix. The overall fidelity of the sound is top notch as well, without any hint of the edginess and hardness that often plague lossy sound tracks.
Special Features 
Much like the film itself, the extras here are rather pedestrian and predictable. They consist of a cast and producer commentary track as well as a making of featurette “”Planning the Heist: Making of” with the director, Nimrod Antal and screenwriter James V. Simpson. Also are two shorter featurettes “Crash Course: Stunts” and “Armed and Underground:Production Design” which as the titles imply, reveal what went into the panning of the numerous stunts in the film as well as the design of the sets. The extras are presented in HD. The release also included a digital copy of the film compatible with all portable devices and is BD-Live enabled.
Final Thoughts 
While a predictable heist film, Armored has just enough of a story and excellent audio and video representations to warrant a lukewarm rating, but as a rental only.
I think the movie sucked for the most part. It really lacked something special and just played straight in to the normal cliche.
The trailer alone never sold me on this film and this looks like one that would I ordinarily be all over.