PaulLyons said:
Years ago I read an exciting script called ARMORED by James V. Simpson. Between then and now, someone...probably the producers and director Nimród Antal, took that script...had James V. Simpson re-write it...and then took out all of the good parts...creating a dumb, poorly executed movie. The big issue is that from script to screen...a key plot was altered for the worse...As originally written, our hero Ty gets set up by his own co-workers...The plan was to suck Ty in for the heist of the armored truck...then murder him....so that when the police arrive looking for the money...it will really look like the armored team were ambushed by criminals, with one casualty....Ty. Plus besides...the men make more money if they split the heist five ways as opposed to six...With this set-up...Ty really becomes someone you root for...in a dangerous stand-off between himself and five men. For some idiotic reason...this was changed. In the movie ARMORED...Ty is not set up at all. He is a full participant in the heist team...Yet when he sees one of his co-workers murder a witness in cold blood...Ty makes a moral decision to drop everything, run to the truck...and just drive out of there. You know who I am rooting for at that point? NO ONE. The second Ty made his moral stand...I stopped caring, and my interest in the story plummeted...WHAT were they thinking? Why would they actually LOWER the stakes of the story's conflict? Let's see...which is more exciting to watch...a man fighting for his life...or...a man defending his moral ground? Um....let me think about...oh yeah... A MAN FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE...It's a f$%king movie people! Why ruin a good story on the basis of moral grounds? And guess what? Making Ty change his mind after the hobo's murder does not make him a hero! If anything, he's a coward...Ty willingly participates in the heist...he helps make it happen...That makes him a criminal regardless of whether he changes his mind or not. Given that fact, and the fact that he betrays the loyalty of his co-workers by bailing on the heist...Ty ends up being a loser...and the "bad guys" don't seem that bad! So, in essence, the idiots who make this piece of trash made the good guy dumber, and the bad guys nicer...Good work everyone...job well done. Way to engage my interest...
If had not previously read ARMORED in 2006, perhaps...perhaps my opinion of the movie would be different...Yet I did, and once you've seen/read better...it's hard to accept anything less...Though not horribly awful...as far as ARMORED is concerned...shame on everyone...
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