Honest Thief

Honest Thief (2020)
Directed by: Mark Williams
Written by: Mark Williams
Starring: Anthony Ramos, Jai Courtney, Jeffrey Donovan, Kate Walsh, Liam Neeson, Robert Patrick

Liam Neeson is once more on the phone, threatening all those who have done him wrong, in this by the numbers action thriller from the co-creator of Oziak

By now a Liam Neeson action film follows the same blueprint. A nice guy with a hidden talent that on one occasion will have him on his phone and with his gravel tone, warning some bad guy that he is on his way and he will pay.

Your enjoyment of Honest Thief will depend on how much you still love seeing this same trick played out, which lets be honest, after three Taken Films and countless more, it’s perhaps time for Neeson to look more closer at the scripts he reads and start to demand a bit of originality.

To be fair though it is a serviceable caper for one of the box office’s most bankable action stars out there, even through it does whiff of a straight To streaming actioner which for its 90 minute running time, does more than enough to pass time away.

As the film title suggests, Neeson plays Tom Carter, a bank robber who the press have dubbed “The In and Out Bandit” and has evaded capture for the last few years. On meeting Annie (Kate Walsh), he decides to turn himself in, so he he can serve his time and enjoy a guilt free life with his new found love.

Of course the two agents Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Hall (Anthony Ramos) who are sent to see if he is telling the truth of who he is supposed to be, discover some of his hidden millions and decide to keep the money for themselves, in which we all know from watching a Liam Neeson flick, you do not make him mad!

There are some decent action scenes with Carter and Annie trying their best to outrun the crooked cops and with Burn Notice’s Jeffery Donavan showing good support in the shape of good Agent Meyers, the plot moves from A to B, without really trying to get to C and its a pretty basic formula that many of you will have seen many times before.

Car chases, fist fights and gun battles fill the remining second half of the plot, but there is not one scene that really jumps out and impresses you and by the time the end credits start to roll, you’ll simply forget everything you’ve seen, until about seven months time, when the next Neeson actioner gets released in which once more we will see some dumb person decide to take something from him….

And for that, we will all share that Deja Vu feeling…..

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