Parents' Guide to Armor

While it has an intriguing small-scale concept, there's just too much that's illogical and inconsistent in this action thriller, and even at 89 minutes long, it feels stretched thin. Early in Armor, James is shown to be abusing alcohol. He wakes up and slams aspirin and Tums, and then gulps vodka from an elaborate hiding place (inside a modified orange juice carton). He also carries a water bottle full of vodka. Meanwhile, he not only participates in AA meetings but leads them. Isn't it possible that either someone at the meetings or his son would notice his problematic drinking? And then James is basically bullied into taking the mystery case onto his truck when he had every right to refuse it, which would have ended the trouble before it started.

There's also a lot of (too much?) talking, both between father and son about their deceased wife/mother (played in flashbacks by Erin Ownbey) and among the villains. Stallone—second billed behind Patric—occupies a rare role as a baddie, but he has very little to do (except at the end, when he does something that's blatantly illogical and borderline ridiculous). And even though the movie makes a big deal about things like the heat in the back of the truck or a lost penlight, it doesn't then incorporate them into the story. In the end, this compact little scenario misses an opportunity to be a taut thriller. Instead, Armor wanders all over the place in search of suspense or drama and finds very little of either.