Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone.
It’s a new year, and with it comes a new slate of movies (and maybe even more than that on here…).
Anyway, I hope to be more consistent going forward, but to do that, I’ll also need to be steadier with my output rather than try to rush something out just to cover the latest project when it’s released.
Thankfully, this is one of those times where it’ll be easier.
For my first review of this year, I’ll be covering a pretty overlooked action thriller, and one where the scenario at play seemed largely realistic at that.
It has some people you may recognize in it, too.
Folks, instead of lions*, we’ll be entering a different kind of den, as I present my review of Den of Thieves.
The story begins with a group of ex-Marines hijacking an armored truck in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the heist not only ends with a shootout with the police resulting in several casualties (including one of the crew), but also with the truck being empty.
A team of Sheriff’s Department officers, led by Detective Nick “Big Nick” O’Brien (Gerard Butler), starts their investigation, with his prime suspect being recently parolee Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber, who ended up being one of the better parts of the Halo series**).
They start by interrogating bartender Donnie Wilson (O’Shea Jackson Jr.). Though he tells them he was their getaway driver and he knows of a sizable amount of money they stole, he also says he is unaware of their ultimate goal.
Despite releasing him, they still track him, discovering that they plan to steal from the Federal Reserve… but not for the reasons you may expect.
What Worked: As simple as it may sound, the plot is still very engaging throughout, and how it progresses makes it feel like you’re witnessing them plan something bigger, and then in the third act, you get to see it actually play out.
Plus, the main heist itself feels largely realistic. It feels like these guys really thought everything out. Normally, some of it would be elaborate, but it makes sense here. A good example would be that at one point, once everyone else has left the room, an EMP is used to take out the cameras to buy time for the next part of the heist to be executed.
As convenient as it may seem with how many close calls there ultimately are, you’re still tense throughout it, because you feel at any moment, someone could get caught, and yet they never do.
The cast’s performances are really good, particularly from Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. On both sides, everyone plays off of each other very well. Even Pablo Schreiber and 50 Cent make for pretty good villains. A couple other people worth noting are Brian Van Holt*** as one of the members of O’Brien’s team and Lewis Tan (who would be in Deadpool 2 a few months later) in a small role as one of the guards at the Federal Reserve.
The action is great, particularly the big shootout in the third act. That sequence alone feels like the one in Heat at times, so it’s understandable that it would be one of the influences.
There are genuine stakes during those scenes, and you know before anything happens that people on both sides are more than likely going to die. Sure enough, a lot of people die, innocent or not (even if they don’t always show it).
That leads me to my next point. The sound design is a standout here. The third act is one where you want to make some noise.
Further evidence of that comes with Cliff Martinez’s score and the editors, one of whom is Joel Cox, best known for his collaborations with Clint Eastwood, including the recently released Juror No. 2.
Much like the thieves and their plans, you can also tell with the amount of detail and effort put into this movie that writer and director Christian Gudegast was passionate about getting it made and released. The direction is so solid that you wouldn’t know this had been in development for around 14 years, because you wouldn’t be able to tell.
The script is pretty good, too. Even if some of the dialogue is typical of cop and robber characters, there are some great lines in this, particularly one during the interrogation scene with Donnie: “You’re not the bad guys. We are.” That line is so good it was basically the selling point in the trailer, and it’s just as satisfying in the movie.
There are also some surprises here, the biggest of which sets up the second one in a really good way.
What Didn’t Work: There is a small pacing issue in the middle, so they could’ve trimmed it down a bit.
Some may find the aforementioned conveniences with the main heist to be too absurd for them, but they made sense for me.
There is also a subplot that while I get why it was there, I don’t think it may have ultimately been needed. In fact, one could argue that it felt like something out of a different movie, and I would understand.
There are occasional plot holes as well as somewhat predictable moments.
In terms of issues, though, that’s really it for me.
Overall: Den of Thieves is one of those movies where I hadn’t seen it since it came out, and there wasn’t a lot I had remembered from it because it had been so long, but then upon rewatching it, it ended up being better than I remembered.
From the cast to the action, a lot of it ended up really working for me, though there is room for improvement in some areas.
Even so, it’s a very entertaining action movie, and a solid crime thriller as well. I would go so far as to say I find this to be one of the better January movies.
Starting this year, I’ll be adding a new section. Even though I’ve done this sort of thing before, starting here, it’ll be official.
Where You Can Find It: At the time of this writing, you can find it on Max (through Prime Video or on the service itself), but if you want to watch it and then catch the second one while it’s in theaters, you have to do it within the next week, because after that, they’ll remove it. In terms of when they’ll bring it back, my best guess would be in time for the home media release.
For alternative options, it seems to be popular on TBS and TNT, probably because of the timing with the release of the second one.
Regardless of how or when you check it out, it’s definitely worth it.
I would tease the next review, but it’s pretty obvious what it’ll be on this one.
*It’ll take time for me to get to it, of course, but I do have Mufasa: The Lion King on the List, don’t worry.
**I thought he did a pretty good job as Master Chief (at least in Season 1, I haven’t seen Season 2 yet).
***The main reason I wanted to mention him was because he happened to be in the feature directorial debut of Jaume Collet-Serra (who just directed Carry-On, the subject of my previous review), which was the House of Wax remake in which he played two roles (yes, the same version with Paris Hilton).