{"id":10518,"date":"2025-01-14T16:11:50","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T21:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10518"},"modified":"2025-01-14T16:11:50","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T21:11:50","slug":"den-of-thieves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/14\/den-of-thieves\/","title":{"rendered":"Den of Thieves"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Den of Thieves <\/strong>(2018)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 STX\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 140 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, language, some sexuality and nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Christian Gudegast\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Cliff Martinez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Terry Stacey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 19, 2018 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Gerard Butler, Pablo Schneider, O\u2019Shea Jackson, Curtis \u201c50 Cent\u201d Jackson, Evan Jones, Cooper Andrews, Jordan Bridges, Dawn Olivieri, Eric Braeden, Brian Van Holt, Maurice Compte, Lewis Tan, Meadow Williams.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $44.9M (US)\/$80.5M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0The new heist flick Den of Thieves<\/strong>, directed by first-timer Christian Gudegast, wants so desperately to be Heat that maybe Re-Heat would have been a better title for it. Like the classic 1995 Michael Mann film, it draws a parallel between a gang of thieves planning a major heist and the team of cops out to stop them. It even gets off to a good start with a bravura sequence in which a group of masked men rob an armored car. They\u2019re not after what\u2019s in it (it\u2019s actually empty); they want the vehicle itself. Things go south quickly and a violent shoot-out ensues. Guards and cops are killed. They make off with the truck but, as lead bad guy Merriman (Schneider, 13 Hours) points out, now they\u2019re cop killers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The cops on the case are an elite squad from Major Crimes whose leader Big Nick (Butler, London Has Fallen) is the very definition of rogue cop. He and his guys have crossed the line so many times; there may as well not be a line at all. They track down one of the thieves, Donnie (Jackson, Straight Outta Compton), then kidnap and interrogate him. He explains that he\u2019s just the getaway driver and knows nothing of their plans. It\u2019s revealed to us that Merriman is targeting the only bank in L.A. that\u2019s never been robbed, the Federal Reserve.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As long as Den of Thieves<\/strong> focuses on the heist, it\u2019s pretty good. But true to the movie that inspired it, it delves into the personal lives of the major character and that\u2019s where it runs into trouble. The screenplay by Gudegast (who also wrote London Has Fallen) is filled with half-realized story elements and underdeveloped characters. Nick\u2019s troubled marriage to his soon-to-be ex-wife (Olivieri, Bright) is introduced but has no real bearing on the events of the movie. It only reinforces what\u2019s already been established; Nick is a mess of a human being. We get a couple scenes with the wife and one where he talks to his young daughter at school. These scenes are just filler. They\u2019re superfluous. They don\u2019t need to be in the movie. Couldn\u2019t the makers have just said that Nick is divorced and estranged from his family and leave it at that? Another scene involving the thieves intimidating the prom date of the teenage daughter of team member Levi (rapper 50 Cent) is completely extraneous.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the biggest problems with Den of Thieves<\/strong> is that it\u2019s too damn long. Does it really need to be 140 minutes? I suppose Gudegast felt it did given how much he reveres Heat which runs nearly three hours long. The difference is that Mann gave us well-defined characters played by reliable actors (Pacino, De Niro, Val Kilmer, etc.) and interesting personal drama. He also did a better job showing the parallel between cop and crook. The coffee shop scene with the two leads is classic. We get nothing like that in Den of Thieves<\/strong>. The drama is clumsily handled. It doesn\u2019t provide any sort of context; it only makes the movie longer. Had Gudegast tightened the narrative, it would have worked better.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Den of Thieves<\/strong> picks up in the final act with the actual heist. The plan is rather convoluted; I\u2019m still cloudy on a few details. However, there is real tension in this sequence. The climactic shoot-out, while a pale imitation of Heat\u2019s famous centerpiece, is still pretty cool. It\u2019s almost worth sitting through the movie\u2019s saggy middle section.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Butler is okay as Big Nick, a disheveled, burnt-out sort with questionable morals. In other words, he\u2019s just like a lot of the movie cops we\u2019ve encountered over the years. I was disappointed that they didn\u2019t spend more time fleshing out Schneider and 50 Cent\u2019s characters. As for other members of both teams, they\u2019re basically just there. The best performance in Den of Thieves<\/strong> comes from Jackson (aka son of rapper-actor Ice Cube) who has definite star potential. As much as I\u2019d like to talk about his character, I can\u2019t as it would be a major spoiler. I\u2019ll only say that he\u2019s one to watch out for.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Den of Thieves<\/strong> isn\u2019t a bad movie. It has many good points including editing, cinematography and score. I don\u2019t even mind that it rips off Heat and other action flicks from the 80s and 90s (most notably, To Live and Die in L.A.). It\u2019s the writing and directing that keeps it from greatness. When it focuses on the heist, it moves at a solid pace. When it turns to drama, it sputters and lurches. I would have worked better as shorter, more action-oriented thriller. Den of Thieves<\/strong> fails to live up to its potential and that, my friends, is the real crime.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Den of Thieves (2018)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 STX\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 140 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, language, some sexuality and nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Christian Gudegast\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Cliff Martinez\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Terry Stacey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 19, 2018 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Gerard Butler, Pablo Schneider, O\u2019Shea Jackson, Curtis \u201c50 Cent\u201d Jackson, Evan Jones, Cooper Andrews, Jordan Bridges, Dawn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Den-of-Thieves-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10518"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10645,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10518\/revisions\/10645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}