Armored: To Protect And Serve Yourself.

Ok first off, I'd like to give kudos to Nimrod Antal (yeah, that's his real name) for making such a quality movie considering this is his first significant film, and for landing a gig as directing the anticipated Predators movie set to release in July. (btw, Predators will not be a reboot of the Predators series, it will be a sequel to the origional Predators, ignorning previous sequels and the Alien vs. Predator films.) With that being said, although this is a wonderful "professional debut" this was only a so-so movie, with so-so acting and a so-so plot.

Antal has a very "average" filming style. The kind of style used by directors that will probably never have a name for themselves. An experienced director will use emotions as a basis for choosing artful shots, but this movie, content aside, conveyed no emotion. The performances were reasonable, but not always convincing, and the acting partnered with the filmmaking made it difficult to feel inside the movie.

The entire premise of the movie was a very good idea. The struggle between what the protagonist felt was right and what he felt he needed to do for his family makes for a strong plot. Too bad it was spoiled by emotionless filmmaking. The lines between what the protagonist considered ok, and what he thought were wrong were intriguing. stealing millions from the government is ok in his eyes, but killing to do it is out of the question. why? he has no reason. just because it's wrong. Although from a Christian standpoint, it would have been nice to hear, from a filmmaking standpoint, this is important. It defines his character, and makes us question our morality. why do we do what we do, and refuse to do other things? for religious reasons? for practical reasons? whatever your answer is, knowing why you do something is more important that knowing that you do something.

The cast was almost entirely made up of actors accustomed to playing television rolls, small movie rolls, and supporting characters with the exception of Lawrence Fishbourne (Morpheus in the Matrix franchise.) As refreshing as it was to see these fresh new faces, there's a reason they aren't famous actors: they're not very good. They offered up a believable performance, but not an engaging or convincing one. Part of this might have been poor writing; even the best actors can't make bad lines sound good.

All in all, this was a cookie-cutter movie, with a predictably cookie-cutter ending. What so many filmmakers don't seem to realize is that endings do not have to be happy. Life isn't always happy, and a happy ending pasted onto a movie like this seems to be more of a superimposed image of how the director wants life to be than a reflection of how life is. I understand, people go to movies to escape, but within the bounds of reason, not every single ending to every single movie needs to be happy. It's ok to have a sad ending, because that's just how life works.

Although this movie had many setbacks, it was in no way a "bad" movie. It was mildly enjoyable, and a nice movie to see if you've already seen all the other current action flics. I'm excited to see how Antel's future movies turn out after he develops a style and a sense of emotion.