'Den of Thieves 2: Pantera' is wrong about a few things
HANDOUT
The price of admission for “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” is thinking that absolutely anything done by daring criminals, even if it’s these criminals, is immeasurably cool. Fast driving! Diamonds! Europe! Awesome, right?
Nah. 2018’s “Den of Thieves” had a sort of rugged charm, a cheap beer chugged in the direction of “Heat” and “The Town” and any other number of heist movies even before its (spoiler alert!) attempt at a “Usual Suspects”-lite twist. Its sequel pummels suspension of disbelief into something murky and tiresome until the lingering effect is only exhaustion. Gerard Butler returns as grumbly cop Nick O’Brien, now even more grumbly post-divorce, who somehow has a feeling that his ol’ pal Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) is maintaining his knack for infiltrating high-security buildings and taking things without asking. Indeed, what once was L.A.’s problem is now Paris’, and before you can say “Ocean’s Twelve” Nick has hopped a plane and … well, you can see for yourself, but what progresses between Nick and Donnie is just absurd.
Never mind that the movie hinges on an assumption of trust that makes less than zero sense, or that a film with this small quantity of major incidents and developments somehow goes on 137 minutes, or that the supposed moral gray areas aren’t actually exploring anything. “Den of Thieves 2” doesn’t justify itself at any point, feeling more like a thinly sketched financial calculation than a purposeful continuation of a story that already ended well, at least in terms of its climactic shootout.
No need, really, to explain the details of the score this time, or the forgettable side characters involved. Nick and Donnie are a long way from Vincent and Neil in “Heat,” and in “Pantera” the different dynamic between the leads leaves the story without a strong central conflict as the two struggle to decide where they even land on the good/bad spectrum. And just as Butler and Jackson were both better last time, the sequel’s big set piece is also a considerable step down.
It’s neither warranted nor a major offense that the original has built a cult following. Part two is more likely to be regarded as background music, not the self-congratulatory posturing that writer-director Christian Gudegast wants to successfully impersonate badass.
C-
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