Armor Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Armor Blu-ray Movie Review

"I'd kill for some action." Me too, movie. Me too...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 4, 2025

Armor wastes zero time hopping right to its premise, with opening credits that feature a literal split-screen shot of a locked-and-loaded Sylvester Stallone waiting on a bridge, screen left, facing down a haggard Jason Patrick driving an armored truck, screen right. Patrick plays James Brody, a five-plus-year ex-alcoholic and AA-group leader who talks a good game but, turns out, isn't sticking to soberiety at all. He works as part of a security detail team with his son, a soon-to-be-father named Casey (an initially irritating Josh Wiggins), who loves rolling up to AA meetings and honking the horn for... reasons. On the other side of the sweltering Mississippi highway is a group of hardened former criminals led by Rook (Stallone), a man with money on his mind and his mind on... Jason Patrick's money. James and Casey are running the "Dead Ten," a longer-than-average route, not that it matters. Separating James and Rook? A bridge. One hell of a bridge primed for a showdown.

Well, a showdown that takes place a full day later, on the same route, after a dickish bank manager inexplicably puts the screws to still-grieving Brody, who's paid for the mistakes in his life several times over with the loss of his wife and Casey's mother. James notices a black van following their truck; a van that soon smashes into the armored truck and tries to overtake it. It's a bad plan that could go wrong for the criminals in a hundred different ways. What if the armored truck simply stopped there? Or turned around and high tailed it back to the bank? Or, I don't know, stuck to its planned route? On that note, why would any armored truck be sent along a path with no communications? Does GPS tracking suddenly fail too? Never mind any of that, I suppose. The real plot lies in wait ahead, on a closed bridge off the beaten path that the truck is "forced" to take. Not sure how you force an armored truck anywhere but we'll go with it. Heat this is not.

After Rook and the criminals verify that the truck is indeed bullet proof by unloading a full round of magazines, they fire a grenade that topples the vehicle on its side. (Of course, no one lives in the vicinity of the bridge or calls in the sound of gunfire and explosions on the once-upon-a-time tollway.) James and his son, for no good reason whatsoever, exit the truck and promptly come under fire. This is where Armor goes from interesting genre fare to dumb. Not big dumb fun. That might've been a blast. No, just plain ol' dumb. Bodies drop cause... sigh. No one actually seems to have much of a plan other than: shoot! Even Stallone is nearly hit by a stray bullet from James, who grabs his injured son and climbs in the rear of the truck, which his son has helpfully identified as a deadly "hot box" earlier in the film. Cue survival conundrum. Father and son vs. heat stroke. Oh yeah, and some tough-as-nails crooks. They're a threat too.

"These guys are pros," Brody whispers. Um, yeah. Sure they are. That's why their tactical edge was shattered by two country bumpkins with pistols. Stallone considers offering his name, noting that because James has asked, "he's playing a game of chess." "You can call me Rook," chirps our baddie. "More like pawn!" Zings dear James. "Oh no," I mutter. I've got an hour left to go and this is the dialogue we're working with? Ooph. Brody soon discovers millions of dollars worth of gold bars and cartel coins in their haul, the obvious target of the thieves. "Not pawns," I think. "Pirates!" And the crowd in my head groans. It's here that an everyman solution dawns on me. Have the criminals move to a safe distance, crack open the back door, toss out the gold, close the door, wait for the crooks to leave. Or the police to show. Are there no police in this town? No safety protocols monitoring the time it takes an armored truck to make it from point A to point B? But no. This is the point in the movie where James taunts the gunmen from inside the easy bake oven that is his vehicle.

Unfortunately, the Mississippi blues playing over James' radio has more character than anyone else in the film. Casting among Rook's crew is a problem. Only Stallone stands out. The rest of Rook's crew overacts, hams it up, bites their lower lips in rage, and generally act like Southern drawl cocaine addicts on speed. Even Rook fails to drum up much interest -- Stallone essentially just paces back and forth for the majority of his screentime -- eventually taking a left turn into pacificism part of the way through the story. Why? *Shrugs shoulders* Beats me. Cause... script. Mid-movie flashbacks don't help Patrick or Wiggins either, as said script continues to fail two excellent actors. Armor is a far cry from Narc or Cop Land, and the flashback only serves to unnecessarily muddle what at least might have been a taut little action thriller. Is alcohol responsible for the death of James' wife. No, that would lend narrative weight. His being a cop (technically) gets her killed, and that's the point where I should stop spoiling things, stop being my dad, and just let you decide. Armor is a direct-to-video bore with too many plot holes, one too many subpar performances, and too little action. It feels as low-budget a production as it is, and even the game of survival at its core fails to muster up much in the way of stakes.

Armor Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Armor features a 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer that gets the job done, which is more than the movie can say for ol' Rook. Color and contrast are dialed in precisely, amping up the Mississippi heat without oversaturating flesh tones. Primaries are vibrant, black levels are rich and inky, and delineation (particularly in the dark recesses of the armored truck) is solid. Detail doesn't disappoint either. From the opening minutes of the film, with bullets sliding into magazines and old armored trucks gassing up for a long route, edges are clean and refined, textures are crisp and exacting, and little touches -- chipping paint on an aging vehicle, nicks on assault rifles, the fabric of a bullet proof vest -- are apparent. Moreover, I didn't notice any significant blocking, banding or noise, although some artifacting did creep into a late-game explosion.

Armor Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There isn't nearly as much action to Armor as you might think, or even remember considering how loud and rowdy its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track can be. For thieves trying to avoid adding a murder rap to their sheets, there sure is a lot of heavy gunfire in the movie. Ah well, it's gunfire the LFE channel is more than happy to support, throwing weight and heft behind every shot, ricochet and explosion. Rear speaker activity is assertive and precise, with pinpoint directionality, smooth pans, and spatial ambience that makes for a convincing, suitably claustrophobic soundfield inside and outside of the overturned armored truck. Dialogue is clear and intelligible, without exception, and prioritization is spot on. The only time voices are muffled is when they're on the opposite side of armored plating, and even then, it's never difficult to follow what's being said. All told, the film's sound design is more impressive than its cinematography and action blocking, and its lossless mix is no different.

Armor Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No special features are included.

Armor Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Armor is an action movie without much action; a crime drama that's light on the drama; a thriller without many thrills... you get the picture. Stallone and Patrick do some heavy lifting but with a script this full of holes, that's not saying much. Director Justin Routt and the screenplay fail two great actors, leaving them little to do other than chew on bad dialogue and wait for the credits to put them out of their misery. And it's a shame too, as both men clearly work to bring a different hook to their respective gunslingers; Stallone infusing his crook with pathos, Patrick his driver with grief and the lies of false sobriety. Lionsgate's Blu-ray release is at least decent, with a strong video presentation and lossless audio track. But there's nothing in the way of supplements to dig into the production (or offer answers as to where things ran off the road). Bottom line: you can do better than this one. Move along.