Hello guys and welcome to new 2020 movie review! Today I am going to be talking about one of many recent action flicks that just so happen to have Liam Neeson in the lead. Yes much has been said about his choice of films to star in recently as ever since the release of Taken in 2009, he has been in a bunch of action flicks with the reception varying (both critically and commercially). Recently though the studio Open Road has been pumping these out like crazy with them having released four of these since October 2020. Guess they must be solid performer on home media. Anyways I plan on talking about all of them eventually but today I’ll be focusing on the first of the batch, Honest Thief, which came and went when it first came out amidst a heavily compromised theatrical environment with muted box office ($31 million globally with $14 million coming from the U.S.) and little buzz. Despite that I was still interested in checking it out as I really liked the cast and there is a certain novelty watching Neeson still do these types of films. While I wouldn’t exactly call it one of my favorites, I still found it to be a pretty solid little film. So let’s see what the iconic actor is up to now as he tries to take down those who framed him for wrongdoing!
The picture follows one Tom Dolan, a former US marine and demolitions expert who also happens to rob banks for a living. Known as the “In-and-Out Bandit”, Tom is always able to complete his robberies successfully as he knows how to get the job done. Once he meets and falls in love with a psychology graduate student named Annie Wilkins, he decides that it might be time to retire from it and turn over a new leaf. Wanting to do things the honest way, he decides to turn himself in to the FBI in exchange for a short sentence so that he can put the past away for good. However things don’t go exactly as according to plan as the two FBI agents sent to detain him, John Nivens and Ramon Hall, decide to take all of the money that he has stolen for themselves, murdering their superior and framing Tom for the crime in the process. So now Tom must go on the run from both the rogue agents and the FBI and attempt to clear his name before it is too late.
For those of you expecting a full on action movie thrill ride in the vein of something like Taken, you will more likely than not end up being fairly disappointed as it is much more focused on character and tension than elaborate action sequences. I mean this as a compliment as the movie is able to make one care about this character and want for him to get out of this situation he find himself in due to taking the needed time to show who he is and the relationship he forms with Annie. This is all done pretty well and the writers do a solid enough job setting everything up efficiently and providing enough intrigue and suspense to make one invested in the proceedings. Plus it runs at a brisk 1 and 39 minutes, so it never overstays it’s welcome or stretches its simple premise out to the point where it just repeats the same tricks over and over just to fill a long run time. Now it does follow a lot of the same beats that other “man on the run” type thrillers” have done and most of it does follow the motions with the execution being fairly standard. Still it’s a decent enough take on this type of story that kept my investment.
I will admit for those looking for action on the level of Taken or even something like Unknown will probably be a bit disappointed. Don’t get me wrong there is action but not as much as you might think, which in and of itself is not a bad thing as I did like the more character and conflict focused approach. However most of them are given away in the trailer (in fact a lot of the movie is given away in that trailer, would recommend not watching it if you are interested in checking this out) and the ones we do get are nothing particularly special. They are competently executed and provide enough tension, but there wasn’t one that stood in particular as they mostly consist of standard car chases, shoot outs and fisticuffs. That was a bit of a disappointment but wasn’t a complete deal breaker for me as the film is mainly focused on Tom’s struggle to make things right.
Speaking of which, Tom makes for a decent main character with clear motivations and Liam Neeson doesn’t phone it in with his performance. This is actually one of the more outright likable characters Neeson has played in these types of movies ( where you mostly saw him play deadbeats, alcoholics, etc.) and he brings that needed likability to make the character work and I liked Tom’s sense of honor as it made me want to see him get revenge and get with Annie. Katie Walsh similarly gives that character a similar charm and it is easy to see why Tom would want to reform from his life of crime to be with her. As for John and Ramon, they work well as the inciters of the conflict with both wanting the money for different reasons (the former is just greedy while the latter wants to provide for his family. Jai Courtney shows once again that he is better at portraying villains than heroes as he portrays John as a pretty selfish agent who just wants the money while Anthony Ramos serves as a nice contrast to that actually showing conflicted feelings towards what he and his partner are doing. Other than them, the only other performers who leave much of an impression would be Robert Patrick who beings enough charisma to the doomed Agent Sam Baker to make his demise more tragic and Jefferey Donovan who brings some nice levity as Sean, an agent who is after Tom who is going through the aftermath of a divorce and has a cute dog for company.
In the end, Honest Thief is a decent Liam Neeson action vehicle that gets the job done well enough. It’s a fairly standard take on this type of story with nothing particularly exceptional and the action lacking in the memorability department, but it doesn’t over stay it’s welcome and has enough solid character moments and performances that made it worthwhile for me. I wouldn’t put it among my favorite Neeson action flicks (that would be either Taken or Run All Night depending on my mood), but there were definitely aspects that made this one a bit different from his usual fair that I appreciated and there is a place for small scale thrillers like this. If your in the mood to watch something like that, and just like seeing Neeson in films like this I’d say give it a shot.
Rating: B-
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