Honest Thief

By the numbers. Mechanical. Predictable. No surprises. Middle of the road. It's alright. Decent enough. Not bad. It passes the time sure. It's not the worst I've seen. There's 10 ways to describe Honest Thief, the latest Liam Neeson thriller that's in cinemas now. It will do. 11!

The In-And-Out bandit has been the bane of the Boston branch of the FBI for years. He's a master criminal, capable of robbing dozens of banks without causing any harm to any one. And now he's in love. Tom (Neeson) and Annie (Kate Walsh), a happy couple. Awww. A year into their relationship he decides to come clean before they move on to the next step and he contacts the FBI offering up himself and all the money he has taken over the years. Worn down by cynicism and a plethora of false confessions Agent Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) doesn't take Tom seriously and sends out Junior agents to talk to him. One of the agents, Nivens (Jai Courtney), realises Tom is the real deal and decides to pocket the cash for himself. Things get nasty.

You seen Honest Thief a million times before. None of the plot twists come out of the blue and the destination is never in doubt but a nice turn from Neeson means it's more A Walk Among The Tombstones than Taken 2. He's at the stage where he can do this kind of thing in his sleep and his In-And-Out Bandit is a charming creation who's reasons for what he does seem to make sense. With his gentle demeanour and graceful attitude its easy to see why Annie has fallen for him and why the Feds don't believe him at first. Neeson brings a gravitas to his role, that elder statesman sensibility that's made him watchable for so long. It's also interesting to see how this type of criminal goes about his business too as movie bank robbers tend to be all gung-ho and machine gun toting but Tom's modus operandi is more watch, wait and dig out the polyfilla and paint. It's a nice change.

It's these details that make the earlier part of this film the best part but before long it's back to the same old rigmarole (12!!) of snarling baddies, silly gun battles and boringly shot fistfights, all the stuff we've seen done to death. The film tries to shake things up by injecting it's supporting cast with a bit of quirk and when all else fails it even throws in a (undeniably cute) dog to stir our heartstrings. But that dull seen it all before (13!!!) script just does it no favours. One thing you'll appreciate though is the the fact that for once the romance feels age appropriate. Annie, charmingly played by Walsh, might be a student but she's a mature one and for once there's only a decade between the onscreen couple. It's good not to have that ick factor at play.

Honest Thief is in cinemas now. If you like your films safe and undemanding (14!!!!!) you won't go wrong here.