Soundtrack Review: Armored (2010)

Posted by Jorn Tillnes

February 2, 2010

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Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the motion picture score Armored by John Murphy.

“I’m on the fence here, but I’ll give Murphy the benefit of the doubt”

Armored is a movie about a group of people who work for an armored truck company. There’s a new guard on the job and he’s got himself tangled in a real mess because a group of people at work want him to join them in stealing a truck containing $42 million. The plans goes bad pretty fast and soon it’s every man for himself. Directed by Nimród Antal and starring Matt Dillon, Jean Reno and Laurence Fishburne, this movie doesn’t look bad at all. There are interesting characters, even though the plot is pretty thin. John Murphy is the man to put it all together musically.

Track List

01. Morning (****)
02. Armored Truck Chase (***)
03. Ty’s Decision (*****)
04. Fake Heist (***)
05. Getting Cover (****)
06. Ty Saves the Cop (****)
07. Federal Reserve (***)
08. Work (***)
09. Black Van (***)
10. Warehouse (*****)
11. Stashing the Cash (****)
12. Get the Kid Outta the Truck (***)
13. Ty Escapes (***)
14. Killing Dobbs (**)
15. Booby Trap (****)
16. Ty Runs (***)
17. The End (****)

John Murphy, what happened to him? His scores to 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks later and Sunshine were spectacular I thought, but he hasn’t been able to get back there. Of course it happens to every composer when they get a lot to do and John has been getting a lot of jobs lately. Good for him! Then what about Armored, what can we expect? I came into this expecting nothing as I didn’t know what to expect. Coming from that angle is most interesting for me as the score can tear me in any direction.

Old John Murphy

What I found was that parts of the “old” John Murphy are back, that’s right, and I’ll tell you why soon. As a standalone score it is less effective than in movie I’m sure because the score is just pulsating rhythm, but it works (at times). It doesn’t get me as emotional as I’d hoped, instead it gets me interested in viewing the scenes that go along with the score. I think John Murphy might have gotten it spot on with Armored. The score would be pretty useless for me if I didn’t have the affection for 28 Days Later.

Why 28 Days Later? Because the cues ‘Ty’s Decision’, ‘Warehouse’ and partially ‘Booby Trap’ sounds a lot like ‘Tower Block’ and ‘The Tunnel’ from that score (and also ‘Don Abandons Alice’ from 28 Weeks Later). Is it sad that these cues are the best on this score? Perhaps, but I sure enjoyed listening to them, and that is what it’s all about. The rest of the score is drone music to be honest, but effective drone music. There’s definitely a lot going on here, but you might miss it if you don’t listen closely. It lacks the energy of the cues I mentioned, but it works great as background music, rarely does it go over the top, and rarely does Murphy overextend himself.

Conclusion

I’m on the fence here, but I’ll give Murphy the benefit of the doubt. The fact is that I enjoyed this score, but it’s far from being another 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later or Sunshine and neither should it be. I just miss something from those scores and Murphy is on the verge here of getting back, whatever he has been missing of late. I think that we should give him time and let him concentrate on making music, because one of these days he is going to hit the jackpot.