Heist movies are a fan favorite for action film buffs. Some of the best ones over the years include: Point Break (1991), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Ocean’s Eleven (2001) The Italian Job (2003) and Baby Driver (2017), just to name a few, They are fun to watch and the really good ones rake in money at the box office.
Director/writer Christian Gudegast’s Den of Thieves, released in 2018, starred Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Ice Cube’s son). It was about an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Department trying to thwart a seemingly impossible plan to rob the Federal Reserve Bank. It earned $80,5 million, making it a prime suspect to spin off a sequel.
The director and co-stars are back in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, a movie that expands the scope of the story and raises the stakes.
This time around, “Big Nick” O’Brien (Gerard Butler) is after mastermind criminal Donnie Wilson (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.) who has been recruited by a small group of international thieves planning to rob the world’s largest diamond exchange in Paris. It’s a bit of a mess since the gem they are after was stolen from an even bigger, nastier bunch of mafia criminals who, of course, want to reclaim it.
The story begins with “Big Nick” appearing to part with his LA cop buddies in order to tidy up some unfinished work. The movie would have us wonder whether he’s going deep under cover to infiltrate the den of thieves or whether he has truly gone rogue. For heist movie fans, there’s never really any doubt here, as hard as the movie tries to blur the lines.
Early on, he teams up with Donnie and the story is set in motion. Much of the fun in heist movies stems from the elaborate set up. High-tech security systems must be hacked, surveillance cameras must be foiled, and everything must happen like clockwork, with split-second timing winding down to the white-knuckle climax.
It’s what makes the great heist movies great. The suspense is unbearable. The carefully orchestrated operation always unravels despite the best laid plans. It’s the heist movie plot element that raises suspense to the max.
O’Shea Jackson Jr as Donnie Wilson in DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA. Photo Credit: Rico Torres for Lionsgate.
What’s missing in Den of Thieves 2 are all the delicious details that make a heist movie work. The set-up is sluggishly and slowly drawn out. Lacking any even brief introduction to the members of the crime team other than the key players, the plot development is largely uneventful.
There is a spark of romantic interest that triggers a jealousy-fueled fistfight, but even that fails to amount to much in building tension.
When the heist finally does take place, there is the aforementioned, obligatory screw up that sends everyone into a momentary tailspin. It is shocking to the characters as well as the audience, and is never really explained.
What follows that is the wild car chase scene around cliffside roads with hairpin turns. Somehow, even this fails to rise above stock chase sequences that we have seen so many times before. It lacks freshness, energy and excitement.
Interestingly, at the end of the chase, someone pours gasoline all over one of the getaway cars before setting it on fire, but rather than seeing it burst into flames in multiple quick cuts taken from multiple angles, we only hear the explosion in the distance and see the column of smoke rising behind a curve in the road. Nothing says “we’ve run out of money and need to cut back on the effects” like a cut-the-corner moment like this.
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is not a high-budget movie. The globe-hopping aspect of the story is handled with quick establishing shots of a remote locations and a super at the bottom of the screen telling you what country it’s supposed to be.
Den of Thieves 2 a lackluster story with two surprise ending twists. One of them sets up another sequel.
Maybe it will steal some of the ingredients of the classic heist movies that we know and love.
About the only takeaway from this low-budget international escapade is that audiences will learn the correct pronunciation of the word croissant.
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