Armored (2009)

This movie begins as Ty Hackett (Columbus Short) is just finishing up his probationary period as a member of an armored car team that also includes Ty's godfather Mike (Matt Dillon), Baines (Laurence Fishburne), Quinn (Jean Reno), Dobbs (Skeet Ulrich) and Palmer (Amaury Nolasco).

Ty is a veteran and Silver Star recipient whose parents both recently died and now is responsible for his teenage brother Jimmy (Andre Kinner) who is quickly approaching delinquent status. To top it off, he is about to lose the family home due to two mortgages and the medical bills from his parents.

On the last day of his probationary period, his fellow employees play a "joke" on him by making like they are being robbed by some men in a van. Well, it turns out that the "robbery" was basically a dry run for a robbery that they themselves want to pull off. It turns out that they will be getting new trucks that will be tracked by GPS and if they are going to pull this job, they need to do it now. Amazingly this coincides with a huge shipment of 42 million dollars from the federal reserve.

At first Ty wants nothing to do with this when Mike tells him about it, but when he goes home a child welfare person is there talking about putting Jimmy in foster care. Ty decides to do it as long as no one gets hurt. Famous last words.

When the guys pick up the money from the federal reserve, they have an hour to check back in with the armored security company. They drive the trucks to an abandoned mill, unload the money and hide it. Just as they are about to leave, they spot a homeless man who saw everything and chase him down. Baines shoots him and when Ty tries to help the man, Mike kills the man. Now the guys begin to argue about what to do. Ty runs to one of the trucks and tries to get away, but has no luck. He hides in the truck which also has 21 Million still in it. The other guys decide to try to take the hinges off the truck to get to the money and Ty. The truck alarm goes off alerting a local deputy (Milo Ventimiglia) that there might be something going on at the abandoned mill. He goes over to take a look and gets shot. while the guys are arguing about what to do, Ty grabs the deputy and drags him into the truck.

The guys continue to try to get the hinges off the truck. Ty convinces Dobbs to help him and when Dobbs gets caught by the others, he pays for it. Ty finds that there is a removable floor plate in the truck and takes the deputies radio up to the roof to see if he can get reception. When he comes back, he finds that the guys have grabbed his brother from home to try to get Ty out of the truck. It works. However, when the remaining guys try to get the money, it explodes thanks to the booby trap that Ty set. Ty tries to run away and is chased by Mike in one of the trucks. It doesn not end well for Mike.

In the end the deputy tells how Ty helped him out and the boss at Eagle (Fred Ward) mentions that there is talk of a reward.

This has got to be one of the most predictable movies that I have seen in a long time. Super thin plot, kind of boring actually. There is a lot of star power here, but it wasn't used.

Rated PG-13. 85 Minutes. I give this movie TWO AND ONE QUARTER STARS.