Melbourne

Den of Thieves: Pantera

The sequel to Den of Thieves and this time, the big score is located in Europe.

The first Den of Thieves is quite entertaining and a great heist movie along the lines of Michael Mann’s “Heat”. I strongly suggest watching this prior to the sequel. I did not do that, and started regretting it during the viewing, as there are some references that eluded my memory.

O’ Shea Jackson and Gerard Butler take the leading roles. O’ Shea is completely forgettable performance while Gerard Butler has a great screen charisma but it’s often let down with terrible dialogue.

The plot is slightly confusing at times, nevertheless it moves along at a fairly good pace.

The truth is I’m not here for Oscar winning performance or cinematography or engaging dialogue, it’s about the score. The action.

The movie opens up with a really smooth jewelry caper with full combat gear, full comms, souped up Audis and surveillance overwatch. The thieves are going loud and it’s an intense thrust right into the action that gets you invested straight away.

The big heist in the third act is equally intense but it’s a quiet job and much more physically demanding. All the tropes were on display here. The cameras, motion detectors, safe cracking, all the gadgetry etc..a very engaging display of skill, discipline and physical prowess. (Kind of unbelievable at times though)

Not the best heist movie around but, definitely entertaining. Has a nice little double twist at the end. Not really rewatch worthy for me.

3/5 carats