'Den of Thieves 2: Pantera' Can't Crack The Code

In a world filled with Gerard Butler action movies, here's yet another one. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is almost a good movie, but its overreliance on the original's plot, the standard action, and the spotty acting from Butler make for a dull heist film that comes across like it's half-thought-up. The movie starts on a promising note. We see Donnie Wilson (O'Shea Jackson Jr) perform a large heist; then, the film slows way down in a sea of exposition that makes for a snoozefest of a picture.

I really wish I'd seen the first movie. On second thought, maybe not. Pantera is extremely reliant on knowledge of the first movie for the second movie to work. And I get it. Trilogies (if this becomes one) don't need to be like Batman Returns, for instance, where you don't need any knowledge of the first film to follow the second film. Other movies like The Lord of The Rings films play as one ten hour film. Some films don't need threequels to work. In fact, some don't even need sequels. Writer/Director Christian Gudegast is trying to make a thing out of Den of Thieves. Judging by its 63% popcorn meter on Rotten Tomatoes, it has a small audience who liked it more than the critics. But only by a little. Maybe the first one had more action than the second one.

Den of Thieves 2 builds up to one long, big heist that's underwhelming. It borrows heist ideas from other movies to the tee. There are gizmos that can automatically unlock safes connected to a large vault, elevator shaft cable descents, and the person on standby in the control room who monitors everyone. It's all been done before. And better by Michael Mann, Christopher Nolan, and Steven Soderbergh. What's here is a completely forgettable movie with a convoluted plot and subpar character development. That's too bad, as this could be a great B movie.

I like Gerard Butler. He seems like an actor who can do more than these B-level action movies. I'm genuinely curious to see what his work as the Phantom was like in Joel Schumaker's Phantom of the Opera. The money is where it is, however, and Gerard levitates toward the action movies. As B movies, they can be fun, but only in certain parts. One of my favorite scenes from this film is when Detective Nicholas 'Big Nick' O'Brien (Gerard Butler) is smoking e and getting drunk with his friends. It's easy to see why Nick would be so pissed off all the time. He's a functioning alcoholic who will stop at no extent, moral or immoral, to be a policeman. The film outlines how Nick is a scew up in life, but having not seen the first film, I'd like to know what the situation is with his kids. He mentions he has them in one line of dialog, but that's about it.

For an action movie, there's a surprising lack of it. The movie's trying to be smart, but it's far from it. It's one big generic heist movie with boring characters and a shallow plot. The banner on the screen at the premiere I went to said not to spoil the twist. After having seen the film, all I can say is, what twist? The thing anyone with a brain could have detected early on in the picture? If that's your big twist, then you know the movie isn't working. I can't blame Gerard Butler for phoning it in when the script does such a poor job of carbon-copying better heist films for its audience. If the action was awesome or there was a big motivator, I'd care for what's going on in this film. But there isn't, so I don't.