Item: Armor
Rating: 3
Author: Alex Maidy

PLOT: A father and son working as security guards for an armored truck company encounter a team of would-be robbers while on a bridge. They become trapped and must come up with a plan to escape and ensure their survival.

REVIEW: Sylvester Stallone has been lucky not to have fallen completely down the micro-budget hole to which many other actors of his generation have been relegated. Stallone has been seen in big-screen projects ranging from the Creed series to The Expendables franchise and a great turn in Taylor Sheridan’s Tulsa King series on Paramount+ (read our review of the excellent second season HERE). With documentaries about his career and a reality show with his daughters, Stallone still has bills to pay. Sometimes, a paycheck comes around that you cannot pass up, especially when it requires limited effort. Armor is a generic action flick that benefits from the presence of Stallone and Jason Patric but cannot overcome underwhelming direction and a lack of energy to make it worth investing in despite being a rare villain performance from Stallone. With mediocre effects and lackluster writing, Armor is a misfire in every way.

Armor is a bundle of nonsense wrapped up in bad action and even worse dialogue. The plot centers on father and son armored truck guards James (Jason Patric) and Casey (Josh Wiggins). James is a former cop and an alcoholic, hiding the fact that he is still drinking from his son. James is distant after the tragic death of his wife in an accident years before and makes due driving an isolated route with minimal issues. One day, that route is held up when a crew of thieves, led by Rook (Sylvester Stallone), corners James and Casey on an old bridge in the middle of nowhere to steal what is hidden inside. Having just picked up an unmarked case from a local bank, James and Casey soon realize they are hauling much more than cash. Trapped inside the armored truck, James and Casey must contend with the thieves and the dwindling air as they try to survive.

Conceptually, the concept of Armor could have worked. The dynamic between Jason Patric and Josh Wiggins has some elements that could have stood out if they had been used for more than light character development. For the first half-hour, Armor tries to get us to understand why James drinks and why Casey wants to strengthen his relationship with his father. During these moments, we get prep scenes of Rook and his crew checking their guns and explosives as they get ready for what they expected to be an easy job. As soon as the crew runs down the armored truck, the film loses momentum as the story spends almost half of its running time with Stallone and the bad guys, including Dash Mihok, playing the broadest version of an insane criminal, as they pace the bridge and think of what to do next. Inside, James and Casey try to plot an escape and make time for a quick flashback to give us the context of what fractured their family years earlier. None of these elements are inherently bad, but they do not work well together.

While it clocks in at just under ninety minutes, Armor feels twice as long. There are too many scenes of the characters standing around or talking between a few bursts of action. More attention and time are spent on establishing James’ alcoholism, but it does not serve a real purpose in the film. I waited for Sylvester Stallone to scream or raise his energy level above a grumble, but the legendary actor sleepwalks his way through his scenes. Without divulging plot details, Rook is prepared to let James and Casey die multiple times before professing that he does not kill as he is not that type of person. There is also the fact that not a single vehicle or pedestrian passes the multi-hour standoff on the only river crossing for miles despite seeing houses nearby that would have heard gunfire or explosions. The sheer frequency of illogical and conflicting plot elements and motivations for the characters is enough to drive you crazy if you are not bored to death by the movie.

A quick online search will reveal details about Armor‘s tumultuous production, including the supposed $3.5 million pay Stallone earned for a single day’s work. Other details claim that director Justin Routt, who has not helmed a film since 2011, was not the actual filmmaker and that producer Randall Emmett performed those duties. For a film this small to have this many issues is probably not uncommon, but it does explain why there are over ten minutes worth of establishing shots to pad this film to a feature-length running time. Screenwriters Cory Todd Hughes and Adrian Speckert do not create a single plausible line of dialogue in the entire film, with every actor feeling restricted to a finite list of words they can utter. There is also the bizarre soundtrack, which fades one song out at multiple points and immediately goes into another.

Actors do what they do to get paid, but when a film at least makes an effort to be coherent and enjoyable, it can elevate a film from mediocre to tolerable. In the case of Armor, this film is nowhere near mediocre due to formulaic action that cannot even muster enough energy to keep attention on screen. Jason Patric and Sylvester Stallone still have solid screen presence and deserve much better than movies like Armor. Avoid this one unless you want to see many people talk through a wall between intermittent explosions and gunfire.

Armor will be in Theaters, On Digital, and On Demand on November 22, 2024.