| Honest Thief | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Mark Williams |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Shelly Johnson |
| Edited by | Michael Shawver |
| Music by | Mark Isham[1] |
Production |
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| Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 99 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30 million[3] |
| Box office | $32.6 million[4][5] |
Honest Thief is a 2020 American action thriller film[6] directed by Mark Williams, from a screenplay by Williams and Steve Allrich. The film stars Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh, Jai Courtney, Jeffrey Donovan, Anthony Ramos and Robert Patrick, and follows a former bank robber (Liam Neeson) who decides to turn himself in to the FBI, only to be set up by corrupt agents.
Honest Thief was theatrically released, including in IMAX, in the United States on October 16, 2020, by Open Road Films and Briarcliff Entertainment. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Neeson's performance, but noted the film's familiarity.[7][8]
Tom Dolan was a former US Marine and demolitions expert. After years of service, Tom decided to use his knowledge and skills to become a successful bank robber known to the public as the "In-and-Out Bandit". One day, while he was storing money in a storage unit, he met Annie Wilkins, a psychology graduate student employed by the facility. The pair seemed inseparable as they worked together to store his money, Annie unaware that the money was stolen.
A year later, Tom, wanting to live a life with Annie without the guilt of his past, turns himself and the ill-gotten money over to the government in exchange for a much more lenient sentence. Tom sets up a meeting with FBI agents Sam Baker and Meyers. Sam Baker promised to meet the very next day. However, Sam Baker was out for the day, so they redirect the case to agents John Nivens and Ramon Hall.
They meet with Tom, and Tom reveals the location of the stolen money. Later Tom reveals that there were only 3 Million dollars, not the 9 Million he had promised them. Sam checks out the case for himself, and is shot with a 9mm by Nivens. Tom witness the event unfold, and jumps out of a window, right in front of Annie.
Tom realizes that they tricked him into revealing the location of his stolen money. He barely escapes with his and Annie's life, now fully aware that Nivens and Hall wanted to keep the money for themselves. Tom reveals that he robbed banks as revenge for his father's CEO's unfair treatment to his father, who had grown depressed due to the death of Tom's mother, and he would later commit suicide. Tom kept robbing bank because it was exhilarating. He tells Anne to hop onto the bus to keep herself safe. However, she hops off the bus without his consent to pick up the storage unit's security footage card. Returning to the storage unit, Nivens and Hall came to pick up the footage card to cover their tracks, resulting in Nivens knocking her unconscious, assuming she was a criminal accomplice. When Tom found her, he rushed her to the hospital. When Baker's partner, Sean Meyers, attempted to arrest Tom, Tom explained everything and barely managed to evade capture. Driven by angst and suspicion, Meyers began to notice discrepancies in Nivens' story.
After ambushing Hall in his home, Tom was able to get the security footage and the location of the safe house from him. Hall revealed that Tom needs to get Annie out of the hospital before Nivens kills her. Tom asks Annie for her help in getting the security footage to Meyers. After setting up a bomb to destroy Nivens' house, Nivens made his way to the safe house expecting to find Hall there. Little did he know, Tom was secretly waiting for him. When Nivens discovers that Hall had already turned over the security footage, he flies into a rage and murders Hall. During the struggle, Tom is left wounded but manages to fight off Nivens. Before Nivens can get away with the stolen money, Tom call Nivens, letting him know there is a pressure-sensitive IED under his car seat, forcing Nivens to call the bomb squad. Meyers quickly apprehends Nivens. His car is searched and the stolen money is recovered. It's then revealed that the IED was a dud.
Annie sends a voice recording of Tom's confrontation with Nivens by Hall, where he had caught Nivens's confession to Baker's murder as well as his murder of Hall.
Knowing he must take responsibility for Nivens' accidental death, as well as for his bank robberies and stealing nine Million dollars, Tom turns himself in. In response to his confession, Meyers offers a reassuring promise - he will do what he can to lessen his sentence. Meyers sees through Tom and truly admires his conviction. He acknowledges Tom's uncovering of Nivens' illegal activities. If it weren't for the circumstances, Meyers muses that Tom could have made a terrific FBI agent. We never see if Tom really ended up in jail like he wished for.
On October 12, 2018, it was announced that Liam Neeson and Kate Walsh would star in the thriller film Honest Thief, as bank robber Tom and his love interest Annie, respectively, with Mark Williams directing. Jai Courtney and Jeffrey Donovan were also in talks for roles, with Tai Duncan, Myles Nestel, Williams, and Craig Chapman producing the film.[9] Courtney and Donovan were later confirmed along with Anthony Ramos, and Robert Patrick added to the cast in November, with filming set to begin on November 5.[10][11] The film was set in Boston, and shot in and around Worcester, Massachusetts.[12]
In January 2020, Briarcliff Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film and set it for a September 4, 2020 release.[13] It was then rescheduled to be released on October 9, 2020.[14] In June 2020, it was announced Open Road Films would co-distribute the film with Briarcliff.[15] After temporarily being pulled from the schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film's ultimate U.S. release date was October 16, 2020.[16] Due to the lack of big-budget competition, the film also played in IMAX and Dolby theaters.[17][18]
Honest Thief grossed $14.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $18.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $32.6 million.[4][5]
In the United States, the film grossed $1.3 million from 2,425 theaters on its first day, including $225,000 from Thursday night preview screenings. It went on to debut to $3.6 million, or $4.1 million including Canada's opening weekend the previous week, topping the box office.[17] In its second weekend the film made $2.4 million, remaining in first,[19] before being dethroned by newcomer Come Play in its third weekend.[20]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Honest Thief holds an approval rating of 39% based on 109 reviews, with an average score of 5/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Guilty of first-degree squandering, Honest Thief returns Liam Neeson to late-period action thriller mode but neglects to supply much of a story."[21]OnMetacritic, it has a weighted average score of 46 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[22] According to PostTrak, 75% of audience members gave the film a positive score, with 53% saying they would definitely recommend it.[17]
Owen GleibermanofVariety complimented Neeson for not phoning in his performance, but added, "Honest Thief isn't incompetent (for a certain kind of pulp action fan, it delivers just enough of the goods), but it's a textbook case of an action movie that goes through the motions."[23] Frank Scheck for The Hollywood Reporter said the film "delivers exactly what you expect" and wrote, "Running a sleek 90 minutes before the credits roll, Honest Thief is certainly efficient if not exactly original, with writer/director Williams infusing it with enough quirky character touches — such as Tom crankily complaining how much he hates his 'In and Out Bandit' moniker — to distract from the derivative feeling of it all."[24]
