Crash isn’t a movie I found all that great though my interest was mainly for some of the controversy and honestly as strange as the “plot” and characters were, it’s not that out of bounds at least nowadays.
Honest Thief
(2020)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller, Action, Crime
Universal | PG13 – 99 min. – $34.98 | December 29, 2020
Date Published: 12/21/2020 | Author: The Movieman
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Universal Pictures Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Meticulous thief Tom Carter (LIAM NEESON) has stolen $9 million from small-town banks while keeping his identity a secret. But after he falls in love with the bubbly Annie (KATE WALSH), Tom decides to come clean about his criminal past, only to be double-crossed by John Nivens (JAI COURTNEY) and Ramon Hall (ANTHONY RAMOS), two crooked FBI agents. Review: Ever since the release of Taken all the way back in 2006, Liam Neeson has been cast as the bad ass action hero numerous times and although the final product wasn’t always the best, Neeson’s mere presence made those films passably entertaining. Same goes for Honest Thief, a third-rate suspense-thriller that managed to wrangle in not only Neeson but Jai Courtney as well (don’t think it was a stretch to get Jeffrey Donovan or Robert Patrick, however). Have to think Neeson and Courtney needed some extra mortgage money or something.
As for the movie itself, the plot is pretty weak, the action scenes were okay but nothing terribly noteworthy and the writing, and dialogue in particular, was bad, mostly any of the interactions between Neeson and Kate Walsh, their relationship, for which the plot kind of hinges on, never seem to gel despite both having plenty of charisma separately. In terms of the performances, Neeson was still a bad ass, just not quite on the level of his previous action-thrillers, Walsh was charming enough, Jeffrey Donovan’s appearance just made me want to revisit the early seasons of Burn Notice and Jai Courtney once more seems to be in his wheelhouse playing a class a asshole, but lacks any real menace outside of being a corrupt FBI agent. The film was directed by Mark Williams who marks his sophomore effort following the 2016 drama A Family Man with Gerard Butler, though appears most of his career was as a producer. The script, which he co-wrote with Steve Allrich felt, or at least sounded, like something that was discovered in a drawer, written by in the 1990s. Not a bad thing mind you as I enjoyed aplenty thrillers from that decade (the time my movie-brain was developing), though this one could’ve used another pass to iron out some of the wrinkles in the plot.
In the end, my own initial reaction to Honest Thief was that it was unremarkably satisfying. It’s probably worthy of a rental if nothing else catches your eye when looking over Redbox’s menu, but don’t go in thinking you’re getting a top-shelf Neeson action-er but if there is any consolation, Honest Thief is at least more than a few notches better than Taken 3 and there is enough to grab one’s attention. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0/5 |
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This release does come with a semi-glossy slip cover and inside is the redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Unfortunately, no other features were included. |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Universal Pictures was the big winner in distributing Honest Thief onto Blu-ray where it’s presented with a 2.39 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer (with an MPEG-4 AVC codec). For the most part the picture here looks fine. While not extraordinary, at least detail was relatively sharp particularly on close-ups and colors are basic but still bright, showcasing the oddly empty, in some scenes, streets of Boston. Still, while it’s not exactly a brilliant picture, it’s right on par with any modern, mid-sized, budgeted production. |
AUDIO – 4½/5 |
| The included DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track is strong but not entirely mind-blowing. This one is not going to give your surround system much of a workout, however the action sequences do pack a modest punch and dialogue levels are strong and well balanced. Depth is also decent enough with the front and back speakers getting a slight workout during the action sequences with some ambient noises making its way across the rear channels. |
OVERALL – 2½/5 |
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Overall, Honest Thief isn’t a very memorable crime-thriller and would be completely forgettable if not for Liam Neeson continuing to be a bad ass even when the script doesn’t give him much to work with, and Jai Courtney once again makes for a slimy asshole villain. This is a movie probably worthy of a rental, but if not, probably will be available at a bargain price in the near future. The Blu-ray itself has no features but an adequate video and audio transfers. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.