Liam Neeson
’s impeccable set of skills has served him well over the last two decades, and long after appearing in Taken, he put them to use in the action thriller Honest Thief
. The film was released in 2020, but at the beginning of January it was put in front of a new audience on free streaming platform, Freevee. After topping the chart immediately, then dropping out of the Top 10, the movie has now shot back up to #3 on the chart almost a month later.
Liam Neeson’s skills include his ability to deliver movies that please large audiences looking for violence, high drama, and twisting, turning – if often predictable – storylines about kidnap, revenge, or retribution. Coincidentally, it is also the kind of movie that keeps topping free streaming charts time and time again. In the case of Honest Thief, it seems the same film can also find success more than once in a short space of time.
Honest Thief finds Neeson playing a professional bank robber, Tom Carter, who is planning on going straight and confessing to his crimes. Things don’t go to plan, though, when corrupt FBI officers try to steal the cash he planned on returning. The film is one of Neeson’s highest rated movies according to audiences, even if it did not fare quite so well with critics.
Honest Thief scores just 41% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, with many crying foul of Neeson’s rinse-and-repeat formula, which has him once more growling his way through his lines and taking on bad guys in a blaze of glory until all is right in the world and the hero has saved the day once more. Audiences were fully on board with this, scoring the film 87%, putting it amongst some of Neeson’s best movies according to the people who actually watch them.
Liam Neeson’s Action Pedigree is All About Crowd-Pleasing
Liam Neeson was never known as an action star throughout the first decades of his career. Appearing in comedies such as the Steve Guttenberg movie High Spirits, and the ever-popular Love, Actually, Neeson was as far from the world of big action-packed blockbusters as anyone could be. Taken changed all that, and set the Irish actor on a path that would sustain his career for more than 20 years. He has taken on terrorists, petty criminals, mob bosses, and anyone who has done his family wrong, and that is exactly what many people come to see in the genre.
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Neeson is now heading towards the end of the action era of his career, and as a man of a certain age, he clearly knows that he cannot go on forever. Last year, while promoting one of several action releases, he made it clear that he will continue acting, but probably in other genres.
“I’m 72 — it has to stop at some stage. You can’t fool audiences. I don’t want [stunt collaborator] Mark [Vanselow] to be fighting my fight scenes for me. Maybe the end of next year. I think that’s it.”
Later this year will see Neeson picking up the torch in a movie that will be playing its action for laughs as the lead in The Naked Gun. Following in the clumsy footsteps of Leslie Nielsen, Neeson will play Frank Drebin Jr, the son of Nielsen’s character. With the actor having shown his comedy chops many times in the past, The Naked Gun’s success could well be the new pathway that he has been looking for.

Honest Thief
- Release Date
-
September 3, 2020
- Runtime
-
92
- Director
-
Mark Williams
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