Heist thriller movies have been around for over 60 years and several of them have been critically acclaimed including; The Sting (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Going in Style (1979), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Heat (1995), The Usual Suspects (1995), Inside Man (2006), The Italian Job (1969/2003), The Town (2010) and Baby Driver (2017). Den of thieves has taken inspiration and paid tribute to several of these acclaimed heist thrillers.
Cops without limits.
Den of Thieves is the directorial debut of Christian Gudegast, he also wrote the script and produced the film. In the past, Christian Gudegast has served as the scriptwriter for 2 action thriller movies, including – A man apart (2003) and London has fallen (2016). Den of thieves was released in cinemas on January 19, 2018 and in DVD/Blu-ray on April 24, 2018. The cast of the film includes Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson in the lead roles.
Dirty Jobs. Dirty Cops
Gerard Butler portrays the character of Nicholas "Big Nick" O' Brien who is a Los Angeles county Sheriff hell bent on capturing Ray Merrimen 's crew. In the film, his character is seen as trying to create a balance between his personal life strained by divorce and professional life, which is focused upon catching the bad guys. Pablo Schreiber plays Ray Merrimen, a former US marine, who is the crew's leader and intents upon robbing 30 million US$ from the Federal Reserve Bank in Los Angeles. O'Shea Jackson Jr. portrays Donnie Wilson, who is the designated driver of the crew and a full time bartender. Curtis Jackson “50 Cent”, Evan Jones, Cooper Andrews portray the characters of Levi Levoux, Bo Bosco and Mack respectively and are an integral part of Ray Merrimen's crew.
The story continues in Los Angeles, a group of robbers lead by Ray Merriman try to hijack an armored truck on 5:14 a.m. During the assault, security guards alert the police but die in the shootout. Police arrives on time but the robbers flee the scene with an empty armored truck. Next morning Nicholas ‘O brien (Big Nick), a Los Angeles Sheriff department officer reaches the crime scene for investigation. Nicholas suspects that a bartender named Donnie might be involved in the crime. Nicholas and his team kidnaps Donnie to interrogate him. After the interrogation Nicholas realizes that Ray Merriman and his crew wants to rob 30 million US dollars from the Federal reserve bank. From here on Nicholas and his team tries to hunt down Ray Merriman and his crew in order to catch them red-handed.
Den of Thieves received bad reviews and was rated very low but after watching the first 15 minutes of the film I felt that it had some potential. The film features two fast-paced action sequences; one at the beginning and the other at the very end of the film. But in a heist thriller, the plot twist and story are more important than the action in the film. Den of thieves did not disappoint me in its acting, visuals, sound, action and plot twist but the story and character development was weak. The deficiencies in the writing could have been covered up if the story had focused a little more on the family dynamics and personality of Gerard Butler’s character along with providing some character depth and back story to its villains. The first 90 minutes of the film had a steady start and the story in the last 45 minutes was very fast paced but overall the film lacked character development. The plot twist was good but the film contained some plot deficiencies in the script.
The story is gradually and smoothly built up in the first 90 minutes of the film but during the last 45 minutes it loses its flair. Gerard Butler has starred in several action films and his acting in Den of Thieves did not disappoint me. Pablo Schreiber and O' Shea Jackson Jr’s acting is worth watching. Den of Thieves is not up to the standards of past crime thriller movies such as Heat, The Usual Suspects, Reservoir Dogs, The Italian Job, The Town etc but it is still a good effort in terms of filmmaking due to its originality and action sequences.
For those of you who enjoyed Den of Thieves there is some good news. In February, 2018 it was announced that Den in Thieves 2 is in production and will be a sequel to the film.
Directed by Christian Gudegast
Produced by Gerard Butler, Mark Canton, Tucker Tooley
Screenplay by Christian Gudegast
Story by Christian Gudegast, Paul Scheuring
Music by Cliff Martinez
Cinematography by Terry Stacey
Edited by Joel Cox, David S. Cox, Nathan Godley
Starring
Gerard Butler as Nicholas "Big Nick" O'Brien
Pablo Schreiber as Ray Merrimen
O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Donnie Wilson
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as Levi Enson Levoux
Budget: $30 million
Box office business: $80.5 million
Release Date: January 19, 2018 (cinemas), April 24, 2018 (DVD/Blu-ray)
Running time: 140 minutes
Genre: Heist/Crime, Thriller, Action