HONEST THIEF

A movie with a poster in which Liam Neeson holds a gun must sound like music to the ears of cinema operators now.

In a time when Hollywood majors are releasing next to nothing, a movie with the Northern Irish actor doing the thing he is most known for - wreaking havoc - must be the closest thing to a summer blockbuster.

On the surface, at least, Tom Carter feels like a classic kill-them-all Neeson character. Once a bank robber, he has since given up the trade after meeting the woman of his dreams.

Seeking a clean slate, he tries to turn himself in. Things do not work as planned, forcing him to go underground while trying to protect the people he cares about and clear his name.

Not the most novel of plots, but one that gives clever film-makers plenty of space to inject their signature flourishes such as stunts, fights, gadgets, explosions and car chases - the visual touches that make a movie special.

None of that costly eye candy can be found here.

Instead, what unfolds is a twisty story about a man coming clean to his fiance Annie (Kate Walsh), coping with her trust issues while revealing bits of his crooked past to secure his safety in the present.

There are only a few action-movie stunts here, with much of the time taken up by double crosses and Carter fleeing imminent capture.

The film feels small-scale and unambitious, an experience made worse by lazy thriller writing that deals in fantastic coincidences and the ultra-competent Carter behaving irrationally at convenient points in the story.

THE SUNLIT NIGHT

There are gentle comedies. Then there is The Sunlit Night, a comedy so gentle, it should come with a "do not consume while operating heavy machinery" warning.

It begins promisingly enough: Frances (Jenny Slate) is a New York City artist stuck in a rut, emotionally and creatively. Seeking a fresh start, she grabs an apprenticeship position in Norway.

In the northerly place where the sun sets for a few brief hours each night, she meets a bunch of eccentrics who have chosen to settle there.

This is a story that begs to be cute - there is no other word to describe movies about middle-class American women travelling to "exotic" locales to reset their cultural, culinary or romantic compasses.

German director David Wnendt, working with a screenplay by Rebecca Dinerstein based on her novel of the same name, intends for the film to be the art-house antidote to gentle comedies, such as the likes of Lost In Translation (2003) and Eat Pray Love (2010).

Anti-cuteness is fine - moviegoers can all use a break from seeing transplanted New Yorkers frolicking under the Tuscan sun, rolling their eyes in ecstasy after biting into a real Parisian brioche or feeling blue in frigid Tokyo - but does it have to be so bland?

Strong comedic actors like Slate - along with Zach Galifianakis and Gillian Anderson playing expatriate oddballs she meets up north - look lost and unsure without the usual strong foils playing opposite them. They are boxed in by characters gifted with varying levels of weirdness.

But when everyone is weird, no one is.

NUMBER 1/THE EMPTY MAN/ THE GOLDEN HOLIDAY

Other movies opening this week, but not reviewed here include the Mandarin musical comedy Number 1, which stars Mark Lee as an everyman who, after taking a job as a manager in a drag club, tries becoming a queen himself. The Straits Times will do a review on Saturday.

In supernatural mystery The Empty Man, a retired cop played by James Badge Dale looks into the case of missing teens in a small town, believed to have been taken by a resident called The Empty Man.

In Korean comedy The Golden Holiday, a cop (Kwak Do-won) and his family go to Manila for a holiday, but the detective's real purpose is to collect a debt from a conman (Kim Sang-ho). But the original mission is put aside when the crook convinces the cop that there is hidden treasure to be found.