So, the world's dumbest bank robber, Tom decides one day that to impress a woman he wants to start a new life with, he's going to confess to the FBI and use his money as leverage to work out a deal. He feels guilty about stealing from banks even though it's revealed he did it to seek revenge against a CEO who ripped off his dad's pension. So by confessing, he's essentially giving that evil CEO back his money? Wut? Ok, I know he's just giving it back to the Feds, but still...

The Feds don't believe Tom and finally decide to send agents after a few days. They actually think he's insane and search through his storage locker, digging through trash and almost missing the loot until Agent Hall finally finds it in a random box. Agent Nivens gets the bright idea to steal the money, even though they're on record just about everywhere dealing with this guy, on camera everywhere. Clearly the FBI only hires millennials who haven't walked into Best Buy in the last twenty years. Just ludicrous.

Clearly now, they were setting everything up for a plot twist with Jeffrey Donovan's character as the newly divorced agent who lost almost everything in the divorce. I'm sure we all kept waiting for the big reveal. Maybe it was supposed to happen in the parking lot at the end when he just lets Tom go for everything. For whatever reason, they resisted the urge to do that, which is refreshing, yet, since this obviously isn't an Oscar award winning drama, they might as well have done that for some excitement. Shame.

I actually enjoyed this. I probably won't watch it again, but...it's original! It could have been done better. The potential is there. That's the one upside of the pandemic, big blockbuster films are being delayed and B-movie films like this that are somewhat original are getting a chance. I like it.

HONEST THIEF is another crime thriller that sees Liam Neeson on autopilot. He gives a performance so laidback and disinterested in the proceedings that this feels like a recent Bruce Willis movie. Neeson's aged thief decides to give himself up and turn in his loot, only to be double-crossed by a pair of corrupt FBI agents. What follows is oh-so-slow and oh-so-predictable, with character deaths you see coming a mile off and a bare minimum of action just to satisfy the correct quota. The acting is sub-par, the direction quite dull, and the whole thing just lacks energy and momentum.

Tom Dolan (Liam Neeson) is the In-and-Out-Bandit. Over the years, he has stolen $9 million from banks while they are closed on long weekend holidays. He has fallen in love with Annie Wilkins (Kate Walsh) and wants to confess for a reduced sentence. He calls FBI agent Samuel Baker (Robert Patrick) who is not convinced. Baker sends subordinates John Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Ramon Hall (Anthony Ramos) to interview him. He tells them the location of the money and they end up stealing it. It goes badly and FBI agent Sean Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) struggles to put the pieces together.

Liam Neeson keeps doing this character and he's good at it. He makes this unlikely story somewhat reasonable. It's still unreasonable. Dolan is a smart man and he would never surrender in such a haphazard way. He would get the insurance companies to put some pressure on a deal. He could contact the FBI without revealing his identity. He could authenticate his work by listing some of the more questionable sequential bills. All of this is predicated on Dolan being a smart man.

Even if one accepts the premise as a cost of doing the movie business, the characters continue to do dumb things. That's all the characters. I thought Annie was asking all those questions to catch the guys on a lie. Instead, she's just talking. Dumb and why add it to the movie? It doesn't change the movie one bit if she never talks to them at that time. Nivens doesn't need to kill anyone if he simply talks to Dolan like a reasonable thief. Dolan is absolved of his crimes without having to do any time. In fact, it would be a great premise if Nivens isn't a clueless evil agent. I won't even get into all the bombs in the last act. This Neeson Taken requires the audience to turn off their brains and if that's possible, this is a good popcorn flick.