Honest Thief is a simple movie that doesn’t revolutionize anything, doesn’t set the world on fire, doesn’t change hearts and minds. It does what it does competently and entertains. It’s a solid, effective suspense thriller. The film stars Liam Neeson in another one of his later-in-life action flicks that I thought he’d stopped making. You know, January actioners like A Walk Among the Tombstones, Non-Stop, and The Grey… a series of flicks, some good, some bad. This is one of those.

Liam Neeson plays a retired safe cracker who has met the love of his life and now wants to come clean. He makes a valiant effort to turn himself into an unconvinced FBI. And soon enough, he runs afowl of some crooked agents, someone winds up dead, and now he’s on the run, trying to prove he’s not the bad guy… while still trying to turn himself in for being a different kind of bad guy.

I pretty much enjoyed the first two acts of this film… but thought the third act wasn’t very solid. Not bad, but not as entertaining as the pretty good setup. I can’t really pin down where the movie started to lose steam. But, hey, it never collapses under its own complexity and nobody turns in a bad performance. It’s still good enough.

I don’t know… this is one of the better Neeson action flicks. It’s suitably good enough to watch, sometimes more and sometimes less compelling than expected. Call it a mild recommendation based on low expectations.

Score: 78