Armored is a slick little thriller with a very strong cast.

For some reason, the trailers and the ads are selling this thing as a heist movie, and that's not entirely honest. Despite all the action/adventure laid out for you in the commercials, Armored is more psychology than shoot-'em-up.

Matt Dillon, Jean Reno and Laurence Fishburne head up the ensemble cast, all playing employees of an armored truck company. Also on the company payroll are characters played by Amaury Nolasco and Skeet Ulrich, with Columbus Short playing a rookie employee.

Some time is spent establishing that Matt Dillon and Columbus Short are lifelong friends. Short's character is a vet of Iraq; his parents and Dillon's character were close friends and Dillon is his godfather.

All that history helps explain why Short agrees to go along with Dillon and the rest of the guards in a scheme to steal the money they're supposed to safely transport. They'll fake an attack on their armored vehicles, stash the money somewhere, wait out the heat and -- voila! -- they'll be rich.

Short's character, who is obviously honourable and not that keen on the robbery, is pushed to be part of it; he has pressing financial and family problems, and in the end, he agrees to go along.

Armored chugs along, carefully laying on the tension and dread as the guys put their theft plan into motion.

The crime seems effortless and victimless, until one detail goes wrong -- and a violent reaction to that detail changes everything. The men are now divided against one another, and the players begin to take sides. Piece by piece, their careful plan begins to fall apart. Now the dog-eat-dog element gets full play.

Armored is brisk and efficient, and though some of the chase scenes are a little fuzzy, it's a reasonable 90 minutes at the movies. Matt Dillon gets to show his capacity for menace and the rest of the crew do their level best, but everybody is under-used here.

There isn't nearly enough time devoted to the relationships among the men at the beginning, which undermines what happens to them all later on. It's too bad. This story could have been a taut little psychological thriller, but somebody decided to dress it up as a action flick. All that does is dilute potential on both sides and leave a less-than-satisfied audience.

(This film is rated 14-A)

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