A Review of “Honest Thief (2020)”

 

Honestly, I am a sucker for Liam Neeson action flicks. Yeah, they are dumb or over the top but at least it is entertaining with its ridiculous action set pieces. Honest Thief is the next in the list of Liam Neeson’s action movie résumé. The premise is “Hoping to cut a deal, a professional bank robber agrees to return all the money he stole in exchange for a reduced sentence. But when two FBI agents set him up for murder, he must now go on the run to clear his name and bring them to justice”. Does this movie hit the mark or did it steal my time that I won’t get back?

Firstly, Liam Neeson is still great to watch with his gravelly voice and the fact that despite his age he is still throwing convincing punches. Tom Dolan (Liam Neeson) is the centre of this movie and for the most part, is a decent character to watch. Annie Wilkins (Kate Walsh) who is Tom’s love interest and the girl that makes him give up robbing banks is okay as well. The moments between the two are quite sweet to watch and there is some chemistry there that we the audience can invest in.

The premise is also mildly interesting despite being kind of cliche. It’s another action movie where someone is framed for something they didn’t do and they have to prove themselves. Ironically, Liam Neeson has done movies like this already such as “Non-stop” and “The Commuter”. However, there are some bits and pieces in there that could make the movie interesting such as him being framed by corrupt cops and that he Tom isn’t a badass murderer. The first half of the movie is also pretty enjoyable because it spends time on its characters. It develops the backstory of the characters, their relationships and individual quirks. The movie doesn’t just develop the main leads but also the veteran cops and the corrupt cops as well. It is quite refreshing to see. There is also this running gag with wisecracking veteran agent Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) and the adorable scruffy dog he inherited from his recent divorce.

It’s a shame the second half decides to abandon all of the interest in the characters. The movie becomes a more generic action movie with boring car chases, not spectacular fistfights and some mediocre shoot outs. What could have been complicated characters, become just generic and one-note characters. An example is one of the corrupt cops Nivens (Jai Courtney) who makes a good point about taking the money that the audience might agree with but then becomes generic evil greedy dude.  

The movie is just incredibly predictable and all the suspenseful moments such as the shady dealings aren’t as impactful as it should be. I would have probably liked the movie more if the action scenes were at least visually pleasing to watch but it isn’t. Additionally, there some are weird choices made by characters that are just really silly and can take you out of the movie. For example, a character has been shot repeatedly which the main character Tom saw. Instead of checking if he is still okay or calling a hospital he instead decides to do a phone call first right next to a dying or dead person. It’s a weird director decision and it just makes the character seem weird.

Overall, the movie is just very mediocre. There is something interesting buried within this movie with characters dealing with guilt and personal responsibility but they are unfortunately not explored. Furthermore, the action scenes are boring and not that exciting. This is what makes the movie disappointing as the pieces for a stronger movie are there but not utilised. If you like Liam Neeson then there is worth watching it for him alone but you want a fun action movie then this isn’t it.