Honest Thief (2020)

Honest Thief (2020)

 

5/10

Starring

Liam Neeson

Kate Walsh

Jai Courtney

Jeffrey Donovan

Directed by Mark Williams

Not a superb film, but the same old movies we have seen played out by different casts. The beginning to these movies are all different, but then soon they all fall into the same tune after the first act.

Honest Thief, is about an aged bank robber turning good. It is the typical reason, he met a woman. I guess any other reason to stop robbing banks were taking so the writers decided to go with the cliché one. The movie plays the same tune you would expect it to when all the cards are placed on the table, except with one death which I was not expecting. Everything else about this movie can be guessed from the moment you can pinpoint the antagonists.

I guess Liam Neeson is the action thriller actor (who gave an average performance here) that has a face of special skills, which always seem to come to play when the pushing hits the wall. Nothing major stands out in this film, not the writing which has plot holes, directing or acting. Even the editing and effects were all below what I would have expected.

In this movie Neeson plays Tom a former marine whose special skill was hunting for mines and some sort of explosive expert. Well for some reason which you will find out while watching Tom decided to ditch the good life and become a bank robber. He was very proficient a robber that he was named the in-and-out bandit. One day while looking for a place to stash all the money he has stolen he meets Annie (Katie Walsh). Well, you can see the sparks flying from a mile away and after a year together they were planning to moving together. Tom felt he cannot move on with this new life with Annie without making amends for his previous life of crime. He calls the FBI and tells them who he was, wanting to turn himself in for a reduce sentence. The FBI who picks up the call did not take him seriously because they have been numerous calls of people clamming to be the in-and-out bandit. But as expected they assign two agents to go check it out.

When the two agents meet Tom and interview him, they did not believe him because his stories seem too far fetched. He tells them where he stashed the cash and upon investigating, they two agents discover the cash. It is from there the movie gets into the realm of, “hey! I know what will happen now.” The agents want to keep the cash and take out Tom, but as you would expect things get more complicated than they expected. Soon we have a chase on our hands, because Tom escapes from the agents after witnessing them commit murder in order to keep the money they stole.

In the end it feels more like a B-movie which you catch while lazing around a Sunday like I did.