Honestly, Liam, what were you thinking? Honest Thief is simply not worthy of your well-documented ‘particular set of skills.’ The plot is beyond paper thin, making this particular action crime drama barely worthy of a special crossover episode of USA television’s White Collar and Burn Notice. On second thought, I’m being unfair to White Collar and Burn Notice. Those shows had much stronger character development and motivational clarity.
Neeson is, as always, watchable and likeable and resourceful; it’s the material that lets him (and us) down.
Neeson plays Tom Carter, a notorious bank robber known as the In and Out Bandit because he gets in and out of small town banks with precision and ease and no collateral damage. Over the years, he’s stashed away about $9 million. Then, one day, he meets the lady of his dreams (Kate Walsh, Grey’s Anatomy/Private Practice) at a storage rental facility and decides she is worth more than the cash. Seeking to come clean, he tries to turn himself (and the stolen money) in to authorities, only to be double-crossed by a pair of bad-apple FBI agents (Jai Courtney, Anthony Ramos). Also in the mix: an FBI agent played by Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) who doesn’t know what to make of the elusive Bandit’s sudden change of heart.
I wanted to like Honest Thief. Honest, I did. But the more I thought about it, the less sense it made, and the more I realized that the biggest thing the Honest Thief stole was time. Mine.