Warning: Major spoilers for Armor below!Sylvester Stallone’s action thrillerArmorsits at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and again shows his failure to break one of his strangest rules. Another element that makes thisSylvester Stallone action movieunique is that it’s one of the rare times he’s played a villain, as the thriller makes it clear Sly’s “Rook” is willing to kill the guards trapped inside the armored truck he’s trying to break into. Despite a fun hook,Armorhas a dismal 0% rating onRotten Tomatoes, which with complaints about everything from the stock characters to the terrible CGI.
Even the film’s slim runtime feels “padded” to some reviewers. It also doesn’t offer Stallone any interesting material to work with, and the star refrains from making Rook too nasty or mean.Stallone only worked onArmorfor one day(according toThe Los Angeles Times), which is an impressive feat as the character feels present throughout. Alas, there’s not much Stallone could do to counteract the film’s dire reviews - but it’s also a pity that he didn’t commit to playing a true villain either.
Armor Proves Sylvester Stallone’s Characters Will Never Die
Stallone’s Rook literally just walks out of the movie
Any longtime fans of Stallone’s may have noticed an interesting trend:Sly NEVER dies in his movies. Be it an outlandish action movie or a grounded thriller likeCopland, the star always makes it to the end credits. Bizarrely,Armorlets Stallone’s villain get away with his misdeeds too. Leading this heist resulted in the deaths of all his men, and he very nearly got Jason Patric’s guard James Brody and his son Casey (Josh Wiggins) killed too. Regardless, Rook saves them at the last moment from his maniacal henchman Smoke (Dash Mihok), and all his wrongdoings are forgiven.
The ending ofArmorsees Stallone’s villain just walk out of the story, having somehow convinced James and Casey not to tell the police he was involved. This is a truly peculiar story choice because,despite whatever reluctance he may have expressed, Rook was prepared to murder James and Casey for just doing their jobs. He then spends most of the movie trying to break into their truck to steal the gold within, and in any other action movie, he would have died for his actions.
Sylvester Stallone’s next action thrillerAlarumis set to arrive in 2025, and co-stars Scott Eastwood, Mike Colter andReacher’sWilla Fitzgerald.
Except,Stallone has a “no death” rulethat he has enforced for close to 50 years. He hasn’t died onscreen since 1978, and in the Netflix documentarySly, he states he’s in the “hope” business and doesn’t like to see his characters die. The issue is that Rook is a mercenary who attacked the truck with murderous designs, soArmor’sfinale, making Stallone’s Rook out to be an okay guy who gets to casually stroll into the sunset, feels utterly unearned.
F.I.S.T. Is The Movie That Created Stallone’s No Death Rule
One of Stallone’s first Rocky follow-ups ends on a dark note
After his breakout with 1976’sRocky, many of Stallone’s subsequent projects struggled. This includesF.I.S.T., a crime drama that cast Sly as a Jimmy Hoffa-style character who is gunned down in the movie’s closing moments.As he recounted inSly, the star hated director Norman Jewison’s choice to kill hisF.I.S.T.character, and since then, has sworn off ending his movies in such a manner. Now, he hasconsideredbreaking that rule over the years, includingStallone almost killing Rocky in the finale ofRocky V- but the studio nixed that plan before it was shot.
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$126 million
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Expendables 4also teased the demise of Stallone’s team leader Barney, only for the ending to reveal he faked his death. WithArmorcasting Stallone as a ruthless thief, it seemed he might finally allow himself to perish onscreen, but despite defying all logic, the character lives to heist another day. While Stallone believes audiences hate seeing the protagonists die, it depends on the story.
Armorshould have been a harsher, darker movie than it ended up being, and making Stallone’s Rook an intimidating villain would have helped immensely.
Despite its leading man’s objections,F.I.S.T.earns its downbeat finale.Armorshould have been a harsher, darker movie than it ended up being, and making Stallone’s Rook an intimidating villain would have helped immensely. Instead,Armorcan’t bring itself to fully condemn its biggest antagonist, which undermines his menace throughout.
Stallone’s latest action film has some simple pleasures
Armoris another example of producer Randall Emmett’s “geezer teaser” formula. This is where he will pay a major actor (Stallone, Nic Cage, John Travolta, etc) lots of money for one or two days' work while promoting them as the “star” of a given movie despite their minimum screen time. This subgenre tends to get trashed by critics - and often with good reason. Despite this,Armoris a better movie than its 0% RT rating implies. While the CGI is distractingly poor, it’s used very sparingly and the thriller milks some tension from its setup.
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Sylvester Stallone was one of the biggest movie stars of the 1980s, whose filmography during this decade had more to offer than just Rock and Rambo.
Stallone somewhat phones it in, butJason Patric loans some gravitas toArmorthat elevates it above the standard STV effort. His character is burdened with guilt and concealing his alcoholism from his son, and Patric gives the film more dramatic heft than it probably deserves. The film is also refreshing lo-fi and straightforward, with little in the way of distracting subplots. To be clear, it’s a lukewarm effort overall, but it’s far from Stallone’s worst movie either.
Armor
Cast
Armor, directed by Justin Routt, follows armored truck drivers James and his son Casey as they navigate a perilous situation after being ambushed while delivering a suspicious package. Facing escalating danger, they discover the true value of their cargo and must collaborate to outsmart their assailants.
