The good criminal (Honest Thief)

"It's an action movie with suspense, car chases, shootings and explosions. But most of all, it's a love story, and to me that's the most important thing" - Mark Williams.

We are living in a really difficult time in which a part of our humanity seems to have abandoned us and in which our recurring impression of being in a bad horror sci-fi film persists. Going to the movies is still one of the best ways to escape from our sad everyday life and discover new films. Honest Thief)is certainly not the best film by one of our favorite actors, Liam Neeson, but it is a nostalgic look back to an 80's film in which we let ourselves be guided without expecting anything more than to see an action movie or in this case a detective film based on an excellent actor, an attractive cast of supporting actors (Kate Walsh, Robert Patrick, Anthony Ramos, Jeffrey Donovan, Jai Courtney) and a plot that really doesn't shine with its originality and by its director who is content to film the few action scenes that mark this film in the old-fashioned way. Impossible when watching this rather successful film The Full Powers (1997) by Clint Eastwood.

Tom is a former bank robber who was angry about his father's suicide and his mother's death. This former de-miner found the adrenaline that kept him going by developing real strategies for robbing banks. He was not interested in the money he raised, but in the meticulousness required to organize perfect robberies. Yet his meeting with Annie (Kate Walsh) will make him see life in a new light and he will put aside his criminal activities to build a true love story with this woman who illuminates his life. However, Tom's willingness to come clean by confessing to his robberies and returning the money is not going to go as planned after two rogue FBI agents not only killed another agent but also stole $3 million. When his friend Annie is violently assaulted by one of the two rogue agents, Tom decides to take revenge and use his knowledge of explosives to expose the two FBI agents.

After a very successful first film Last Call (2016) that went rather unnoticed, the director and showrunner of the Ozark series offers us through his new film to address the themes of redemption, love and pay tribute in his own way to films that have marked our memories as moviegoers. Certainly, the fact of proposing a too smooth direction spoils part of our pleasure to find the actor Liam Neeson in an action film after the Taken trilogy and some good thrillers like The passenger (The commuter) (2018), Non-Stop (2014). Always as convincing in his interpretation, Liam Neeson unfortunately here does not benefit from the same care given to the screenplay and his character cruelly lacks a real psychology. The direction hardly saves this film and we will move on to an editing that would have really deserved to be reviewed.

By wanting to play as well on the human aspect of the characters and not really trying to propose a different approach of an action movie, we remain quite disappointed by the treatment brought to this film. We can easily understand the will not to seek the spectacular at all costs but we would have liked action scenes better mastered, car chases longer and better framed and specially to find the actor Liam Neeson in the same emotional power as his previous action films.

Yet (Honest Thief had enough potential to be an effective action movie if the script and the cut of the film had been more accomplished. Honest Thief remains a film that is easy to watch but that is just as easy to forget...

Honest Thief
Directed by Mark Williams
Produced by Mark Williams, Myles Nestel, Tai Duncan, Craig Chapman
Written by Steve Allrichn Mark Williams
Starring Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh, Robert Patrick, Anthony Ramos, Jeffrey Donovan, Jai Courtney
Music by Mark Isham [
Cinematography: Shelly Johnson
Edited by Michael P. Shawver
Production company: Zero Gravity Management, Solution Entertainment Group, Briarcliff Entertainment, Sprockefeller Pictures, Argonaut Entertainment Partners
Distributed by Open Road Films (United States), Metropolitan filmExport (France)
Release date: October 16, 2020 (United States), October 14, 2020 (France)
Running time: 99 minutes

Seen on October 14, 2020 at Gaumont Disney Village, Room 3 seat A19

Mulder's Mark: