Den of Thieves 2: Pantera Movie Review (2025)

If 2018 is underestimated »Den of thieves” was almost too obviously inspired by Michael MannLong-awaited sequel ‘Heat’ sees writer/director Christian Gudegast pivot to another action classic directed by Robert De Niro John FrankenheimerThe classic car chase from “Ronin.” When a character was codenamed Ronin at the beginning of the film, I allowed the idea that it might be a coincidence, but then “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” brings out its debt to stories about international criminals se unfolding in Europe for the next two hours. -plus, including sharing a setting with Frankenheimer’s classic in the beautiful city of Nice, France. Both filmmakers also thrive on attention to detail, with Gudegast eschewing that franchise’s “Fast and Furious” option and going deeper and stronger with the sequel. Instead, it delivered what might be called a heist procedural, a detailed film with details about a massive criminal enterprise, raised by two charismatic leading men in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Nick O’Brien (Gerard Butlerin the role he was born to play) is still licking his wounds from the Federal Reserve heist from the first film, even though his superiors insisted he close the case. After all, nothing was stolen. (If you’ve forgotten a 7 year old movie, the original was about a group of bank robbers stealing “junk” money that was removed from the system by the Fed before it was destroyed.) Nick knows that Donnie Wilson (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) was the real mastermind behind the job, and it eats at Nick that he got away with it. When bank accounts link Donnie to a recent diamond heist in Antwerp, Nick travels to Europe to find his man.

However, “Den of Thieves 2” isn’t the typical cat and mouse its setup promised. It turns out Nick doesn’t want to catch Donnie as much as he wants to join his side of the ledger of cops and criminals. So when he stumbles upon Donnie’s latest job, masterminding the World Diamond Authority heist, he becomes a key player on his team. Almost too key a player. I never really understood how easily Nick slipped into this world or how easily Donnie let him. And although Donnie is shown planning much of the elaborate crime, it feels like Jackson takes a back seat to Butler more than he needs to once the work actually takes hold on the ground.

By the way, it is important to note how much time passes before this happens. “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” is more about planning a job than the job itself. It’s downright obsessive in its details about camera cycles, false identities, and elaborate planning. And Gudegast loves setting potential traps around Donnie and Nick, including former members of that crew who might now want revenge and even the Italian mafia who want Donnie’s head for the Antwerp diamond heist. Even though there’s some nice simmering tension, the trailers that show just about every action moment in the film are downright misleading, and Gudegast once again reminds us that he’s practically reckless when it comes to concerns the running time, making a relatively sober genre film (by American blockbuster standards) that lasts over 140 minutes.

And yet, I rarely felt its length. Once Nick and Donnie really bond in a great drunken shawarma scene, the film hums to its excellent final set piece, a phenomenal chase/shootout sequence in the French hills that once again makes the influence classic action in that the bullets pack a punch and the vehicular mayhem looks realistically metallic instead of that cartoony CGI nature we see so often in films like this.

I’ll admit, I missed the LA buzz of the first film and this company’s stronger supporting cast a little (but I also like “Heat” more than “Ronin,” so it kinda makes sense , i guess. ). Nobody is bad here – in fact, Evin Ahmad as a possible love interest for Nick is pretty good – but Gudegast leans heavily on the stellar chemistry of his two stars, who reprise these roles like no time had passed since they played them. It probably won’t take another seven years to make a third “Den of Thieves” movie (which I’d like to subtitle “Megadeth” please), and I’m here for it, almost wondering which classic action this film will be. draw from its construction. Someone send Gudegast a copy of “To Live and Die in LA” for me.