Den Of Thieves - movie review
Den Of Thieves
Plot: A gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.
Cast: Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr.
Director: Christian Gudegast
Certificate: 15 (strong language, violence, threat)
Runtime: 2hrs 20 mins
Release Date: Friday 2nd February 2018
This idea has been crossing my mind for a while now but I'm aiming to bring a new series of reviews to this blog where I visit classic films that I've never seen before and give my initial thoughts on them. First up is the crime caper that inspired all crime capers; Heat. Starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino and directed by Michael Mann, Heat is known for its epic action sequences and incredible intensity. Heat is responsible for inspiring many crime capers of late thanks to the innovative script and...wait a second...this isn't Heat!? This is Den Of Thieves!? Well that makes sense. You'd be mistaken for mixing the two up aside from one is one of the greatest films in cinematic history pairing two of the most prolific actors of our time and the other is a shameful rip-off starring Gerard Butler and 50 Cent. Can you guess which is which?
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| Autoglass repair. Autoglass replace. |
Just a heads up for future filmmakers, if an audience can exactly predict how your film is going to unfold beat for beat, that's a sign of bad script writing especially if these twists are what the whole film is building to. The only way you wouldn't be able to guess every moment in Den Of Thieves is if you have never seen a film in your entire life. From the plot to the stereotypical character archetypes that Gudegast tries to play off as fresh and unique, Den Of Thieves is literally a carbon copy of every single criminal vs. cop drama out there to the point where it borders on possible plagiarism. There's even a point in the film where the heads of both opposing factions meet at restaurant to threaten one another. To make matters even worse, these repetitive sequences might have been bearable if the characters themselves were enjoyable to watch and interact on screen, but they're not. Everyone in this film is completely despicable. They're either first class criminals that have no problem catching civilians in the crossfire or dodgy police officers whose morality you begin to question. So, as an audience member, I'm left utterly helpless as to who I am supposed to have an emotional connection to. Who are our protagonists? Our antagonists? Butler, the supposed hero of the film, outright claims himself to be one of the bad guys. If the script can't work it out, how have we got any chance to? The plot, on paper, is ridiculously straightforward. We have a group of infamous criminals looking to rob the Federal Reserve and trying to stop them, are an equally disgusting group of crooked cops led by Gerard Butler. The reason why I said the plot is simple on paper is that within the ludicrous 140 minute runtime, the story manages to tie itself in knots, become about as convoluted and confusing as a David Lynch film but without the stylistic flair and ultimately, a sloppy, gigantic mess that UNICEF would have trouble clearing up. Twists are a constant feature but they all feel so forced in a last ditch attempt to maintain some sort of audience conviction. One final twist, arriving at the culmination, was such a blatant attempt to copy the Keyser Soze reveal from The Usual Suspects but the end result was more along the lines of an ending from Midsummer Murders.
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| Yet another cold caller. |
FACT: Gerard Butler gained twenty-five pounds for his role, as recommended by director Christian Gudegast.
As for the actors featured in this, it's less of a disappointment and more of a frustration because each of them have shown their acting abilities to be far better and more deserving of this poor imitation of Heat. Gerard Butler, who has already reportedly signed up for a sequel (God help us all), repeats the gruff and tough police officer stereotype you've seen time and time again. He's an alcoholic, a sex addict and currently going through a messy divorce so Big Nick (Butler) is identical to every single controversial officer ever put to film. If you're going to copy from greater films, all that's going to achieve is reminding your audience that there is a better film out there. If I were Gerard Butler, I'd be looking to hire a new agent in the hope of getting me better roles because after Geostorm and now this, things aren't look up for Butler. Other stars such as Pablo Schreiber and 50 Cent have proven their worth on other films and shows (see American Gods for a fantastic performance by Schreiber) but in Den Of Thieves, Gudegast gives them such one dimensional characters to work with that their performances fail to give the film the massive kick up the rear it so desperately needs. However, the ridiculous 140 minute runtime does actually build to something and that is a fairly entertaining heist albeit if it does resemble something you'd play in Grand Theft Auto. Whilst we couldn't care less about the characters themselves, watching the heist unfold and seeing the inventive ways to at least raise our heartbeat slightly was what I had been after the entire time. That being said, as soon as the heist concludes, we return to a mundane and uninventive highway shootout that goes on for far too long. And don't even get me started on the nearly two and a half hour runtime. I have no way of knowing if this is true or not but what it seems to me is that Gudegast has included every single bit of footage he shot, cut them all together and pushed the film out in a rush. There is such thing as realising some footage might not work or be needed in the grand scheme of things and therefore, can be removed entirely. Does someone want to let him know?
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| Apparently, simply being Gerard Butler lets you into crime scenes. |
Den Of Thieves is a dull, lifeless and wannabe remake of Heat but whereas films of this past have at least had the common decency to put a spin on the genre, Gudegast and co. have pretty much stolen common tropes from successful films and attempted to pass them off as their own. The only worthwhile sequence is a twenty minute heist but I can relive it all from the comfort of my own home through the power of a PlayStation.
My Verdict: 2.5/10
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