Den of Thieves

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For starters, I, for one, had high hopes for this movie
and was very excited to see how it performed. Seeing
O’Shea Jackson Jr. playing Donnie gave the movie some
excitement after witnessing a magnificent performance
of him playing his father, Ice Cube, in “Straight Outta
Compton.” Also, knowing how great of an actor Gerard
Butler is and the amount of passion he brings to any
character he plays, gave me something to look forward
to.
“Den of Thieves” first opens with some explaining of
how many bank robberies occur in Los Angeles and
California over the span of one year; the statistics are
then broken down by months, days, hours and minutes.
Having rolled out the facts, which are impressive, the
text concludes that “Los Angeles is the bank robbery
capital of the world.” Not too long after that, the first
scene opens up with a robbery job turned gun fight.
However, the other two hours of the movie were, well,
just two long, boring hours. There were a lot of things
wrong with this flick—noticeable ones at that.
When this movie was first advertised and previewed to
the world, it was assumed that the four main characters
would be Gerard Butler (Nick Flanagan), Curtis Jackson
(Levi Endson), O’Shea Jackson (Donnie) and Pablo
Schreiber (Merrimen).
However, it didn’t turn out to be that way. It felt like a
Gerard Butler flick because so much of the story line
was focused on him and his issues. His character’s
infidelity issues and divorce, mixed with his life as a
cop, remained front and center. It was cool at first to get
some insight into his life, after seeing how the movie
tried to sell him as a gangster cop who was willing to
hover the line of good and evil in order to catch his
suspects. Don’t get me wrong: Butler was as fearful and
badass as ever. Seeing him try to inflict fear into Donnie
in the beginning of the movie, as he choked the spit out
of him, really established his character.
After a while, all of the attention on him started to
become annoying. The previews made sure to show
highlights of Jackson, Jackson Jr., and Schreiber as the
main protagonists, but in no part of those two hours did
it feel that way. 50 Cent only had one personal scene to
himself where he tried to inflict intimidation into his
daughter’s prom date.
‘Den of Thieves’ Movie Review
A poster for the movie‘Den of Thieves.’now in theatres!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/1626208159//Creative Commons
By Victor Dawson

2. 3
“For the past sixteen years, my daughter’s protection and
safety has been my responsibility, and my responsibility
only. Now, for the first in my life, I see, I gotta hand you
that responsibility. Don’t [mess up] or your momma
would weep that she has to wheel [you] around
everyday for the rest of your life.”
That’s really about it. That’s the longest dialogue 50
Cent had throughout the whole movie. It was like he
was barely even there. He wasn’t a star, but more like
a supporting cast member, which was disappointing.
The same went for Schreber, who was supposed to play
a ruthless and highly intelligent bank robber. He didn’t
really have enough time to shine, like his character
demanded.
Out of the three, Jackson Jr. had the most spotlight,
playing a talented driver who was just trying to make
ends meet. Still, his moment didn’t come until the end,
when he escaped the handcuffs in a cop car during a
shootout, and took thirty million dollars out of the
trunk. Even through all that, Butler’s character snatched
up too much of the spotlight.
The other problem with this movie is the lack of
chemistry between the antagonist and protagonist.
It always felt like something was missing. The last
showdown and shootout between the bank robber and
feared cop was supposed to be filled with anticipation
leading up to it, but failed to live up to expectations.
Overall, “Den of Thieves” was good, but not great, and
will be remembered as one of those films that came and
went.
Rating: 6/10
This movie while good was not great, but go out and
judge for yourself.
Photo taken by: Vladimir Solomyani