Each actor makes a crummy film each now and again, however the sting of a large flop nonetheless has to harm even in the event you’re as seasoned a performer as Sylvester Stallone. The creator and star of the “Rocky” franchise and Rambo himself sadly has a justifiable share of field workplace bombs to his identify, however nothing fairly as critically reviled as his 2024 motion thriller “Armor.” The movie, written by newcomers Cory Todd Hughes and Adrian Speckert and helmed by “If I Have been Dictator” director Justin Routt, has a Rotten Tomatoes critic rating of 0%, with all 25 critics who reviewed it giving it an enormous thumbs down. Stallone is aware of a couple of issues about late-career flops, like his unlucky “Rambo: Final Blood,” however it’s discovered a second life on Netflix. Is it potential that “Armor” finally ends up being beloved by streaming audiences in some unspecified time in the future as a sort of “so dangerous it is good” oddity? Possibly. For now, it is simply sort of a catastrophe.
No less than Stallone is not alone and is in some fairly good firm with different stars who’ve motion pictures with 0% scores, together with Halle Berry for her completely forgettable shark thriller “Darkish Tide” and Nicolas Cage for the Christian apocalypse drama “Left Behind.” However what about “Armor” is so horrible that no critic might give it their endorsement? Let’s have a look.
Critics say Armor has a convoluted script and a mediocre execution
“Armor” is about armored safety truck guard James Brody (Jason Patric), who’s working together with his son Cody (Josh Wiggins) when a gaggle of thieves led by Rook (Stallone) try to rob the car whereas it is caught on a bridge. It is a fairly bare-bones concept that would work with the suitable forged and course, however apparently, nothing actually comes collectively.
Based on Dennis Harvey’s evaluate at Selection, Stallone is not a very compelling villain and he does not appear to take pleasure in enjoying a villain, which is sort of the pre-requisite. The extra enjoyable a villain is having, the extra enjoyable your film is, usually, which implies “Armor” simply is not a lot enjoyable. Harvey additionally factors out some plot flaws that seem in a number of different critiques, together with the truth that nobody ever calls the police and there is no tracker on the armored car regardless of its high-value payload. He even compares it unfavorably to the last movies of fellow motion star Bruce Willis‘s profession, noting that Stallone’s efficiency feels phoned in and nobody appears to be invested in “Armor.”
The viewers score for “Armor” is a tiny bit higher, with 32% of viewers critiques being favorable towards the movie, however studying by the 100+ consumer critiques is an train in vulgarity as many specific their disappointment in even watching the movie in any respect and losing cash on the rental price. It is nice that Stallone is stepping outdoors of his consolation zone slightly bit and is not simply dropping one other horrible “Expendables” sequel, however perhaps he must be a tiny bit pickier together with his roles.