Bullet Points: Den of Thieves
Heist movies come out almost every week. Everyone wants to be in Heat. Sadly, most directors can’t make a movie as epic as Heat and many actors don’t belong anywhere near a picture like that. Den of Thieves isn’t Heat, that’s for sure. But don’t take that last sentence as a knock on DoT because not being Heat doesn’t mean it isn’t awesome…
Synopsis: An elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew clash as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.
- A hot start: The film starts out with one of the best shootouts I can remember in recent memory. We don’t know any of the characters or motivations yet but it doesn’t matter. Shit is getting serious…fast! It’s hard to imagine the film topping this first scene in terms of the chaos of a gun battle…
- A seriously flawed hero: Gerard Butler plays Big Nick. He’s leader of the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. SD. His life is his job and his job is his life, and both are totally screwed up. As a character, he’s covered in warts. He cheats on his wife (who is divorcing his cheatin’ ass), he smokes and drinks way too much, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get the mission accomplished. He’s not all that different than the outlaws who steal the money. Maybe just one thing… the badge.
- Close crews: It’s easy to see the similarities in the two crews as you watch the film. They are both a super tight-knit groups who are willing to go well above and beyond to protect one anther. The film lets us in on their conversations and interactions and we see that neither one is willing to back down. The cops are just as bad as their counterparts but they have badges and can do almost anything they want. In the end, the two crews were bound to clash.
- The range: I can already tell that first time director Christian Gudegast and myself are going to be good friends. Holy crap! Den of Thieves scratched that itch that I didn’t even know I had. For me, it brings it all to a beautiful, breath-taking point when the two leaders meet in a shooting range. No words are said between the two but a conversation happens, nonetheless. I’m really curious what that looked like in the script because it was my favorite scene in the film.
- One step ahead: There is an excellent back and forth between the LA Sheriff’s Dept. guys and the thieves. No Pacino or DeNiro but these guys are equally as awesome. Butler gets more screen time than Schreiber but Pablo’s character isn’t meant to be some awful villain. He’s basically just a motivated dude whose mission is to rob butt-loads of money. The film follows Big Nick as his life spirals out of control and his work sees him facing his biggest task yet. Every move he makes seems to be countered by Pablo’s gang who always appear to be one step ahead of the police.
- It’s all part of the plan: If you want to see some heist business in super detail where the cops and the robbers are both totally on their game then Den of Thieves is definitely your jam. The directing and the writing are spot on and the environment of the city plays really well into the tension and the chaos of the plot. The anticipation before what they believe to be the big heist is why I watch movies like this.
- Shoot, move, communicate: The final gun battle is something that I thought I would never see; a perfect scene. It’s as if Christian Gudegast watched Heat 200 times and decided to one-up it in a way that I didn’t think possible. The actors had extensive training in the weapons and move and communicate like they really were a crew. Scenes like this aren’t written in the pages of the script but are built early on in the process by getting the actors on the same page and building upon it throughout filming. Stellar stuff.
The Verdict: I can’t put into words how much I enjoyed Den of Thieves. A good wrestling match is one in which every person involved comes out “looking good”, win or lose. That’s what happens in Den of Thieves. Characters who are on screen for only 25 seconds or characters who are used throughout the film are better at the end in terms of development. Gerard Butler continues to be the best actor in these lesser budgeted action films ($10-$30 million) and if I were to make a movie tomorrow I would try my best to get him involved. O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Pablo Schreiber, who I had never heard of, are amazing in their roles. Is it Heat? No way. It might be better.
