“Armed” (** out of four) was a flashy but empty melodrama about a former U.S. Marshal (Mario Van Peebles) struggling to put his life together and runs into a former colleague (William Fichtner) who tells him that all of the former members of his unit are suffering from similar problems and symptoms that he is and they have to get to the bottom of the large-scale conspiracy at hand. Lots of violence and action but little coherence or character development and its overlong at two hours. Disappointment from writer/director/star Peebles who may never top his directorial debut “New Jack City.”