{"id":10582,"date":"2025-01-13T16:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T21:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10582"},"modified":"2025-02-17T18:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T23:12:44","slug":"den-of-thieves-2-pantera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/13\/den-of-thieves-2-pantera\/","title":{"rendered":"Den of Thieves 2: Pantera"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Den of Thieves 2: Pantera <\/strong>(2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 144 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (pervasive language, some violence, drug use, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Christian Gudegast\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Christina Gudegast\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Kevin Matley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Terry Stacey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 10, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Gerard Butler, O\u2019Shea Jackson Jr., Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Meadow Williams, Swen Temmel, Michael Bisping, Orli Shuka, Nazmiye Oral, Yasen Zates Atour, Giuseppe Schillaci, Dino Kelly, Rico Verhoeven, Velibor Topic, Antonio Bustorff, Ciryl Gane.<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0Was anybody clamoring for a sequel to the 2018 crime thriller Den of Thieves? If they were, I didn\u2019t hear it. I honestly didn\u2019t even remember a lot about it. Written and directed by Christian Gudegast, it\u2019s essentially a retread of the much better Heat with its team of thieves meticulously planning and executing a robbery at L.A.\u2019s Federal Reserve while a team of cops sets out to nab them. It\u2019s a stylish film reminiscent of 80s-era Michael Mann. It\u2019s also slow and overlong. It\u2019s not a bad movie, just a forgettable one. I had to rewatch it to prepare myself for the sequel.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The first new release of 2025, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera<\/strong> is actually a little better than the first. Right off the bat, I like that Gudegast resists the temptation to go bigger and louder with this one with a lot of unnecessary flash, dazzle and BANG. It\u2019s another deliberately paced crime thriller, this time with an international setting. It\u2019s set primarily in France where a new team of crooks plans to rob the World Diamond Authority.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Donnie (Jackson, Cocaine Bear), the mastermind of the L.A. robbery who got away with millions of dollars, has a whole new crew and another meticulous plan. He\u2019s going to need it; the WDA is basically a fortress with a seemingly impenetrable security system. None of that matters to Donnie; he\u2019s good at what he does and he knows it. What he didn\u2019t count on was his old nemesis, LAPD sheriff Nick O\u2019Brien (Butler, Olympic Has Fallen), showing back up in his life. Only he\u2019s not there to arrest him. He has something else in mind.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Nick is still smarting over Donnie getting away with his crimes. Even worse, his superiors are content just to close the case because nothing was officially stolen. He heads to Europe after connecting Donnie to a diamond heist out of Antwerp. He tracks him down in France where he drops a bombshell. He wants to join his den of thieves. If you can\u2019t lick \u2018em, you might as well join \u2018em. Surprisingly, Donnie agrees to it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That\u2019s not all there is to Den of Thieves 2: Pantera<\/strong>. It turns out the gem Donnie and his team stole in Antwerp is the property of the Mafia. The boss sends his guys to retrieve it. Let\u2019s just say they don\u2019t ask for it nicely.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While Den of Thieves 2: Pantera<\/strong> does have some action, including one nifty car chase, the focus is on the planning of the heist. It\u2019s really more of a procedural. Gudegast really pays attention to detail. It\u2019s like he has intimate knowledge of how to plan an elaborate crime. It takes a while for the actual heist to go down and when it does, it\u2019s tense. You keep waiting for something to go wrong. While everything leading up to it is interesting, it feels dragged out. After a while, you just want them to stop talking about it and get on with it. Like its predecessor, it\u2019s too long.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Gerard Butler is one of the few current action stars that I like. He\u2019s an old school action hero, one who believes in solving problems with fists or guns rather than CGI-enhanced powers. He\u2019s quite good in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera<\/strong>. Nick is an angry cop. He\u2019s divorced. He has limited visitation rights with his children. He lives in his car. His career took a hit when Donnie got away. He\u2019s got nothing left to lose. If he can\u2019t get justice, at least he can get paid. It\u2019s a good role for Butler.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jackson is also great as Donnie, a smart crook who leaves nothing to chance which makes it puzzling why he lets Nick in so easily. Isn\u2019t he afraid it might be a trap? Instead, the two men start to bond. They realize they\u2019re not so different after all. They open up about their childhoods over shawarma in one scene. They still have solid chemistry between them after seven years. They don\u2019t miss a single beat in their partnership.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Den of Thieves 2: Pantera<\/strong> looks gorgeous, but why wouldn\u2019t it? Nice is a beautiful French city. Also, international settings almost always make a heist movie better. There\u2019s something about foreign locales that enhance excitement and tension. The only thing missing here is a fruit stand being knocked over.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I have to say that Den of Thieves 2: Pantera<\/strong> is a pretty good movie. For a movie released in January, it\u2019s quite good. Does it need to be 144 minutes long? No, Gudegast could have tightened the narrative a bit. However, it never actually gets boring so that\u2019s a plus. It\u2019s not a bad way to start the movie year.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 144 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (pervasive language, some violence, drug use, sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Christian Gudegast\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Christina Gudegast\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Kevin Matley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Terry Stacey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 10, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Gerard Butler, O\u2019Shea Jackson Jr., Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Meadow Williams, Swen Temmel, Michael Bisping, Orli […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10603,"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-10582","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-2-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10582","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=10582"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10605,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10582\/revisions\/10605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}