Den of Thieves is a heist action thriller film starring Gerard Butler, Pablo
Schreiber, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and 50 cent.
Basically, it’s about a rough, roguish elite unit of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s
Department going against a gang of ex-military bank robbers who are attempting
to pull off a job that has never been done before – a heist on the city’s Federal
Reserve Bank.
It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s
perfectly entertaining. It has an intriguing, old-school “cops vs. robbers” narrative that has some impulsive Point Break and Heat vibes going for it and ridiculous yet stimulating twists-and-turns. Plus, the action delivers proper thrills.
The two opposing groups in the movie share
this interesting poker-like, chess-like dynamic between them. The build-up towards the big day of the heist
is like that for two rival sports teams going into a sudden-death playoff
game. And leading towards this showdown, they
engage in “mind game” and “measuring each other up” interactions. It’s as if they are in a card game, teasing
each other’s hands before finally revealing them; or a boxing match, throwing
testing jabs before starting a brawl. This
is the mood prior the climactic ultimate face-off, and it has a winning effect
on its audience, who are really made eager of seeing which group will outsmart the
other and come out on top.
Moreover, all throughout, you can’t rid of the feeling that there’s more to the story than what the narrative
is letting on. You are led to entertain notions
like, the cops, being shady as they are, may be planning to take the robbers’ haul
for themselves, or that they are actually in cahoots. Regardless, you feel that everything is building
up to a surprising revelation in the end.
All in all, Den of Thieves holds up. Sure, it definitely has goofy, unbelievable developments along the way, but at the surface
level, everything actually works. Its
problems arise when analyzed, but it is so fun that it prevents you from doing
so. It compels you to stop over-thinking
and just enjoy the ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment