Review of Den of Thieves (2018) by David N — 18 Aug 2018

A poorly written, poorly structured entry into the action/thriller genre. This movie has well-choreographed action scenes and the military jargon is on point, but something seemed amiss from the very beginning. About half-way through the film I figured it out. The entire plotline is lifted from Michael Mann's superlative 1995 classic, Heat. From the opening scene, where they're robbing an armored car, to the cat and mouse game with the whirlwind of a mess cop, to the massive shootout at the final job... hell, even the final shootout between Butler and Schrieber seemed a bit too familiar... I don't have anything against movies emulating classics, but this film had little to offer and the plot-holes were big enough to sink a ship while the inconsistencies and facepalm moments were numerous...

*spoilers ahead*.

1. Why rob an empty armored truck? it's automatically suspicious. Just rob a regular armored truck, make some money, and then the cops don't puzzle over why you did it...

2. Why did O'Shea Jackson's character turn so easily? Butler's crew didn't have anything on him... Was it because he choked him? c'mon! This guy was in the military, where getting choked out is a part of the training. the fact that this man, who's been incarcerated multiple times, and not for petty crimes, rolled so easily should have been a red flag to Butler.

3. It was contrived, and honestly bs that Gudegast (the director/writer) expected us to believe that a police officer, after hearing what he believed to be a hostage being killed, would just brazenly enter the scene of a bank robbery in progress... without backup... just insulting.

4. Butler engaging Jackson and the crew in the restaurant was a real head-scratcher... as was the scene at the firing range... and did Butler sleep with Shrieber's wife, or was that a brothel or something? these were really weird plot devices.

Honestly, I could go on. I wanted to like this movie, if for no other reason that to give me a reason to like Gerard Butler. Unfortunately, his poorly written, one-dimensional character was wholly unlikeable. I'm still trying to figure out who the protagonist was in this film. I get that with that horrible "twist" ending that they want us to think it was Jackson, but that just makes me eye roll.

This movie is a collection of bad tropes held together with bubble gum and a couple of good shootout scenes.