Review of Honest Thief (2020) by Moviemitch96 — 27 Oct 2020

In this action flick, Liam Neeson stars as a seasoned bank robber, who, after meeting and falling in love with a woman, decides to turn himself in and surrender the millions of dollars he's stolen over the years, with the hopes of receiving a reduced prison sentence so that he can be released earlier and happily spend the rest of his days with her.

However, things unfortunately don't go so smoothly, as he's set up and framed for murder by two corrupt and greedy FBI agents hoping to keep the money for themselves, and he finds himself on the run as he sets out to prove his innocence.

At this point, most of us know by now that Neeson's no stranger to these types of action flicks ever since 'Taken' redefined him as an action star over a decade ago. And while you could make the argument that most of his films are pretty formulaic and predictable (which, spoiler alert, this film is no exception to), there's no denying that there's something so satisfying and fun about seeing him take names and kick ass.

That being said however, it really does appear as though the usual formula of his films may truly be wearing thin, and I have to straight up say that this is one of his weakest films yet for various reasons.

For starters, the whole thing is just so predictable. Plot points and even certain lines and moments I could see coming from a mile away. A lot of the dialogue I found to be ridiculous and laughable as well.

Furthermore, the film's action surprisingly takes a while to kick in, with quite a bit of dragging with the setup in the first act. Unfortunately, the dragging continues throughout much of the film, with only a few truly memorable action moments, but even those are relatively short.

To cap it all off, the film's end feels overly sappy and is seemingly tied up in a nice and satisfying little bow, which just didn't quite sit right with me. Overall, Neeson's still plenty entertaining to watch, but I fear as though his action star days are starting to overstay their welcome at this point.