HONEST THIEF (2020)

Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Mark Williams
Cast: Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh, Jai Courtney, Jeffrey Donovan, Anthony Ramos, Robert Patrick
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Rating: PG13 (Violence and Brief Coarse Language)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 22 October 2020

Synopsis: Career bank robber Tom Carter (Liam Neeson) is a former marine and demolitions expert who has robbed $9 million from 12 banks in 7 states. No one knows his true identity and they call him the In and Out bandit for his meticulous bank jobs. When he meets the love of his life Annie (Kate Walsh), he is inspired to right his past wrongs and leave behind his life of crime. He turns himself in to the FBI and forfeits the money in return for a plea deal and clean slate. When he calls the Boston FBI field office to confess and set a meeting, Agents Baker (Robert Patrick) and Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) laugh it off as a prank. Instead, they send their subordinates, Agent Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Hall (Anthony Ramos). The two younger agents are shocked to discover that Tom is the real deal and see the stolen money as their golden ticket to a better life. So begins an intense, action-packed cat-and-mouse game where good and bad become tangled.

Movie Review:

He was Darkman before the current era of Marvel and DC. He once led an A-Team. He fought wolves. He even solved a mystery on a plane. And he is widely known for possessing a particular set of skills. He is none other than Liam Neeson.

Like Jackie Chan, the 68-year-old, lanky Irish actor has been talking about retiring from action cinema for a while now. But 2020 might be a weird year, and everyone’s favourite uncle is still busy kicking ass and getting framed in his latest action thriller, Honest Thief.

Neeson plays Tom, an ex-Marine and bomb specialist dubbed by the authorities as an in-and-out bandit who has stolen millions from small-town banks. However, after falling in love with Annie (Kate Walsh), a smart and bubbly woman who works at a storage facility, Tom decides to settle down and leave his life of crime behind. But first, he decides to surrender himself to the FBI, with millions in stolen cash still in his possession.

Things get messy when the two FBI agents assigned to the case, played by Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard) and Anthony Ramos (A Star Is Born), decide to keep the cash for themselves and frame Tom for the murder of a senior FBI agent. Knowing Neeson has a particular set of skills or Tom, in this case you can bet he isn’t going to let them get away with it that easily.

It’s disappointing to report that Honest Thief ranks among the lowest rungs of the generic action-movie ladder. The plotting is so clichéd that you can practically predict what the rogue agents will do next. Murder the witness? Check. Retrieve the evidence? Check. Turn on one another? Check. What begins as an average, watchable flick eventually becomes the sort of movie that should have gone straight to streaming. I know that’s a harsh assessment, but Honest Thief really doesn’t bring anything new to the familiar cat-and-mouse game.

Never mind that Liam Neeson keeps playing the same character. At least give the man something interesting to do instead of subjecting us to boring car chases and a couple of clumsy scuffles. Maybe he could bake a pizza for Annie or blow up half of Boston. I mean, Tom doesn’t have all that much to do here. He spends more time confessing his past to Annie than fighting his enemies. There is little sense of urgency or momentum, and, pathetically, most of the action highlights have already been shown in the trailer.

Just when you expect the movie to offer more, it gives you less as the running time progresses. Neeson still has the imposing presence to command an action flick, but he seems tired of going through the same old motions here. Jai Courtney makes a better villain than a hero, so perhaps he should stick to this career path. Meanwhile, veterans Robert Patrick and Jeffrey Donovan are relegated to relatively small roles.

It’s perfectly understandable if director Mark Williams wants to make Honest Thief a disposable, dumb action flick. Sadly, even by those standards, the movie falls short. The formula has been recycled too many times, and there is less action here than in the first 30 minutes of Mission: Impossible – Fallout. If you’re walking into Honest Thief expecting Liam Neeson to blow up a plane, a train or half the streets of Boston, I’ll be brutally honest with you: dial down your expectations. By a lot.

Movie Rating:

(Liam Neeson is fast running out of steam as the go-to senior citizen action uncle)

Review by Linus Tee