“Honest Thief” is a great oxymoron title for what turns out to be a great movie.

If you’re a fan of Liam Neeson, you won’t want to miss this crime-thriller.

In “Honest Thief,” Tom (Liam Neeson) decides to quit being a bank robber in and around Boston and turn himself in to the FBI after he meets the woman of his dreams, Annie (Kate Walsh).

That sets in motion the movie’s plot, which is along the lines of the adage, No good deed goes unpunished.

Tom and Annie meet cute when he goes to rent a storage unit at the self-storage facility where she works while studying for a graduate degree in psychology. After one year of dating, he proposes to her, showing her the house he wants to buy for them.

Meanwhile, Tom, dubbed the In-and-Out-Bandit, has told Annie nothing of his life of crime, for which he hasn’t been caught. When she finds out, a desperate set of circumstances begins to unravel.

The $9 million that Tom has stashed away and wants to turn over in what he sees as bargaining chips with the FBI is too tempting for Agent Nivens (Jai Courtney), who convinces Agent Hall (Anthony Ramos) to abscond with the money.

The agents’ actions cause a dire outcome for the bureau’s top boss, Agent Baker (Robert Patrick), forcing Agent Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan), their superior, to get involved.

Matters get really complicated, and therein lies the truth of “Honest Thief,” a bonafide classic entry in the crime-thriller genre.

Director Mark Williams (“A Family Man,” 2016) directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with Steve Allrich (“Bad Karma,” 2012).

The screenplay has some nice nuances, such as giving Agent Meyers a cute dog (Tazzie) as part of a divorce settlement. Touches such as this humanize an otherwise by-the-book crime drama.

“Honest Thief” is not to be confused with “An Honest Thief,” a 1848 short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

“Honest Thief” is worth seeing for several reasons. It has the tension of “The French Connection” (1971), including some rather good vehicle chases. Scenes between the main characters provide seat-gripping moments.

The film has the taut simplicity of a Clint Eastwood-directed crime drama and is a top-notch production, including cinematography (Director of Photography Shelly Johnson, “Captain America: The First Avenger,” 2011) and editing (Michael P. Shawver, editor, ”Black Panther,” 2018; “Creed,” 2015; “Fruitvale Station,” 2013).

The music is by Mark Isham (Oscar nominee, original score, “A River Runs Through It,” 1992).

Powering “Honest Thief” is the towering performance of Liam Neeson. Just how Neeson became an action-film superstar isn’t precisely clear. What is known is that it more or less began with “Taken” (2009), a hostage drama box-office hit released more than 10 years ago.

In the intervening decade, Neeson has helmed a variety of successful action films, usually involving a person in peril who he must free or rescue, including “Unknown” (2011), “Taken 2” (2012), “Non-Stop” (2014), “Taken 3” (2015), “The Commuter” (2018) and “Cold Pursuit” (2019).

What is it about Neeson that imbues him with the action hero mantle? He certainly isn’t in the mold of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. Neeson is more along the lines of a Sean Connery, Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford.

Neeson is a thinking man’s or woman’s action hero. You can almost see his synapses synapsing as he goes about his machinations in “Honest Thief.” Neeson’s appeal is his charm. His craggy face has the sad-eyes and disappointed frown of a man not unaccustomed to grief.

It might seem a long way from the serious fare of “Schlinder’s List” (1993), for which Neeson received an Oscar actor nominee. And yet it’s this casting against type of Neeson in action films that makes him so indispensable.

Why is that? His gentle-giant stature, coupled with a reedy voice that can dip into a rumbling growl, bespeaks a don’t mess with me demeanor straight out of the 68-year-old’s Ballymena, Northern Ireland, hometown.

Neeson has a raw, almost primordial, energy, which I witnessed when I saw him opposite Natasha Richardson in a revival of the play, “Anna Christie,” on Broadway in 1993. Neeson rose from the muck, as it were, albeit a stage trapdoor.

Neeson married Richardson in 1994. They had two sons. Richardson died in a 2009 skiing accident.

“Honest Thief” is served well by a solid supporting cast, especially Walsh as the feisty girlfriend and Jeffrey Donovan as a near-expressionless FBI agent.

“Honest Thief” won’t steal two hours of your time. Honest.

“Honest Thief,”

MPAA Rated PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Parents are urged to be cautious. Some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers.) for strong violence, crude references and brief strong language; Genre: Action, Crime, Drama; Run time: 1 hr., 39 min. Distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment.

Credit Readers Anonymous:

“Honest Thief” was filmed in and around Worcester, Mass.

At the Movies:

“Honest Thief” was seen at AMC Center Valley 16, The Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley, Upper Saucon Township. Again, the experience was good, with movie-goers wearing face masks and observing the six-foot social distancing protocol. I purchased my ticket online and had the QR code scanned by the ticket-taker just inside the theater entrance. There’s nothing like seeing a movie on a big screen with theater auditorium sound.

Movie Box Office,

Oct. 23-25: “Honest Thief” continued at No. 1 with $2.3 million. $7.4 million, three weeks, 2,502 screens. 2. “The War with Grandpa,” starring Allentown’s Oakes Fegley, continued at No. 2 with $1.8 million, $9.7 million, three weeks, 2,345 screens. 3. “Tenet” continued at No. 3, with $1.3 million, $52.5 million, eight weeks, 1,801 screens. 4. “The Empty Man,” $1.2 million, opening, 2,027 screens. 5. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” dropped one place, $577,000; $1.9 million, two weeks, 1,614 screens, 2020 re-release. 6. “Hocus Pocus” dropped one place, $530,000, $4.3 million, four weeks, 1,277 screens, 2020 re-release. 7. “Monsters, Inc.” $494,000, opening, 1,875 screens, 2020 re-release. 8. “After We Collided,” $420,000, opening, 460 screens. 9. “2 Hearts” dropped three places, $320,000, $989,822, two weeks. 1,678 screens. 10. “The New Mutants” dropped three places, $286,000, $23.1 million, 830 screens, nine weeks.

Box office statistics are from Box Office Mojo.

Unreel,

Oct. 30:

“Come Play,”

PG-13: Jacob Chase directs Azhy Robertson, Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher Jr. and Allentown’s Winslow Fegley, who is Oakes Fegley’s younger brother, in the Horror Thriller. A monster manifests itself through smart phones and mobile devices.

“Fatale,”

Deon Taylor directs Hilary Swank, Mike Colter, Michael Ealy and Kali Hawk in the Thriller. A married man is tricked into a murder scheme by a female police detective.

Opening dates are from Internet Movie Database.