'Den of Thieves' Is a Perfectly Entertaining Heist Action Thriller

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.