de facto film reviews 3 stars

The first Den of Thieves was one of the best January surprises in recent memory. The first month of the year is typically the time when studios dump out their genre programmers while putting their time and effort into marketing their awards-caliber films. For much of the past few decades, this has been the case with some, but not many highlights. However, this is becoming less of a thing in recent years, with some real surprises coming in early in the year. One of those great surprises was 2018’s Den of Thieves, a refreshingly trashy, gritty cops-n-robbers heist film that felt fueled by nicotine and Red Bull. Not only boasting some outstanding set pieces, but it gave star Gerard Butler, arguably, his best character since King Leonidas in Zack Snyder’s 300. The film has gained a substantial cult following in the years after its release, which is why we finally have a sequel seven years later. While fans who hoped the breakneck pace and uber machismo of the first film would return may be disappointed by the sequel’s more laid back style, the sequel is a thrilling, engrossing endeavor in its own right.

Courtesy Lionsgate

Big Nick O’Brien (Gerard Butler), the lawless cop of Los Angeles, is back right where we left him, still attempting to piece together the events of the first film. The badass cop got bested by wheelman turned criminal mastermind, Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), escaping Nick’s capture and sailing off to Europe, with millions of dollars successfully stolen from the heist at the Federal Reserve. Nick isn’t able to prove any money from the Federal Reserve was actually stolen, leaving his investigation at a dead end. Donnie is now part of an international group of thieves who have recently stolen a priceless diamond and have their sights set on infiltrating the World Diamond Company. Nick bows out of the force and tracks down Donnie in France where he blackmails him into bringing Nick into the fold. Together, alongside Jovanna (Evin Ahmad) and her team, they set out to pull off their biggest heist ever.

Writer/director Christian Gudegast returns to his gritty world of cops and robbers with another well-constructed, meat and potatoes heist flick. If the first film was a macho riff on Michael Mann’s Heat, Gudegast’s sequel plays more like a riff on Miami Vice through a Jean-Pierre Melville film. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera feels more like an international hangout movie than a high-octane action flick. Gudegast’s first film has this propulsive energy that keeps you locked into its macho bravado, while Pantera is more laid back for most of its runtime. This sequel succeeds in refusing to retread its predecessor, opting for a patient film that rewards greatly. Despite its somewhat low energy first half, this is still an extremely entertaining film that allows the viewers to sit and wallow with these characters as they come to understand one another.

Courtesy Lionsgate

The performances of Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. center the film, allowing the extended runtime to unfurl more layers to their characters. Butler’s best work comes from the first film, so it’s a real treat to be able to explore Big Nick on a more human level. There is a hilarious scene early on between Nick and Donnie as they go on a drug trip that could’ve been unnecessary for most films, but this scene actually shows character growth between the two leads. Butler’s introduction in the first film saw him showing up hungover to a crime scene, eating a donut from a box covered in blood and broken glass and spewing lines like “I got enough toxins in me to turn the Gaza Strip into Gay Pride” and “oh fuck, give me the Pepto”. Nick is the kind of swaggering, ultra macho gangster cop that b-movie fanatics can’t get enough of. In Pantera, he’s coming to grips with the fact that he was bested by a team of criminals and is also being served divorce papers from his estranged wife who has sole custody of their kids. Beneath the badassery and scummy antics, Butler shows a more melancholic, weary side to Big Nick as he tries to find another meaning in his life. Butler is enough of a movie star to distill pathos into a character that may be too over the top in the hands of other actors.

The central heist is, itself, a show-stopper of filmmaking craft. It’s fun to see Gudegast show growth as a filmmaker, with a more carefully curated sense of rising tension. If the first half is about the planning and staging of the heist, the second half is dedicated to pulling off the complicated job and trying to stay above whenever the odds seem to fall beneath them. Gudegast uses the grueling process of such an intricate, detailed heist to steadily raise tension to extreme heights. The filmmaker uses seemingly mundane tasks we’ve seen before such as hacking into security cameras, camouflaging near guards and stealthily climbing up restricted buildings into palm-sweating beats of suspense. Although epic in scope, the 144-minute runtime does warrant some trimming, particularly in the climax which seeks to have its cake and eat it too. Frankly, there’s about three different endings here and although none of them are particularly poor, the final 15 minutes becomes a guessing game as to how many sequel-baits and cliffhangers Gudegast can cram into one finale.

Courtesy Lionsgate

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is a slick and engrossing heist film that succeeds in marching to the drum of its own beat, rather than rehashing its predecessor. Writer/director Christian Gudegast delivers an ambitious genre flick that continues to build upon the foundation of the first film that sees Gerard Butler reprising his best role to date alongside the compelling O’Shea Jackson Jr. It isn’t quite on par with the greatness of the first, but this follow-up delivers precisely on what it sets out to achieve.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is now playing in theaters.