So, how many people really remember Den of Thieves from 2018? Not just saw it but that it’s a movie that existed at all. I barely do, and I saw it in theaters and wrote a review. With a first film that felt like a too-close-for-comfort homage to Michael Mann’s Heat but with a Usual Suspects like twist, it just felt like a lot of those Gerard Butler movies that come out fairly regularly. Then, somehow, all these years later, there’s a sequel. It’s a now franchise and one with two stars – Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as the criminal mastermind and Donnie Wilson, who was also in the first film.
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is built directly off the ending of the first film, with Donnie escaping and outwitting Butler’s Detective Nick O’Brien, with O’Brien dead set on finding him no matter where Donnie is in the world. Things go Nick’s way when a big diamond heist happens in Europe that fits Donnie’s M.O., and Nick, who’s down on his luck, uses whatever means necessary to make it over there to catch him. Meanwhile, Donnie is in Nice, France, with a very professional as he attempts to break into the World’s Central Diamond Market safe, a feat that is thought impossible. There’s one problem that no one is thinking about: one of the diamonds Donnie’s crew stole earlier belongs to the Mafia, and they want their stone back.
Unlike the first film this film isn’t trying too hard to feel or be like another older film. The first film’s Los Angeles location, with the cops and robber groups trying to outwit each other, felt too much like Heat with a weaker script and characters. In this, where the world is expanded to the whole world, with it just being about Nick and Donnie, it very much centers this new universe or whatever on characters you can really care about and want to watch. Donnie, with his crew casing and clocking how Nice works, what he will need, and who on his team needs to do what so that the heist can succeed. Jackson Jr.’s Donnie, who through the movie is referred to as Jean Jaques through this time in Europe, is not only very likable but also relatable. He’s one of the most down-to-earth film thieves I’ve seen in a long time. It’s really his film; he’s the protagonist of this story. His changing relationship with Nick becomes very funny as they tap into the buddy-cop dynamic of 48 Hours in their interactions with each other. Butler and Jackson Jr. are great on screen together.
I don’t want to say the rest of the cast is bad or unmemorable because I am not focusing on the characters. They do their jobs well in becoming their characters while we care about the stars. What surprised me is how well this film looks and is directed. Crane shots or could be a drone, helicopter shots (also could be a drone), fantastic B-Roll footage of European locales. This film is pulling in all that James Bond and Italian Job energy with this film. The driving set pieces are also very well done, with great moments of tension in the limited car chases they have in the film. I was legitimately impressed with Christian Gudegast‘s directing work on this film. I’m so impressed that I don’t know why they didn’t screen this for critics. It’s pretty good as a heist movie, with the big heist taking up the bulk of the film’s second half. I’m guessing they were afraid of having a low Rotten Tomatoes score affect its opening weekend, as the first does have a bad score. But come on, y’all, not all of us are going to hate this type of movie. This movie does skew a bit towards “dad movie,” but with most of the awards bait films and family films being the main thing in the theater, a movie with stealing diamonds, driving fast cars to escape, and shooting big guns with the Italian Mafia on top – you got everything you need to eat here y’all.
(P.S. I was given a free ticket to see and review Den of Thieves 2: Pantera after its official release in theaters)
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