Movie Review: Den of Thieves

Den of Thieves ** ½ / *****

Directed by: Christian Gudegast.

Written by: Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring.

Starring: Gerard Butler (Nick Flanagan), Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson (Levi Enson), Pablo Schreiber (Ray Merrimen), O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Donnie), Evan Jones (Bosco), Cooper Andrews (Mack), Maurice Compte (Benny 'Borracho' Megalob), Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau (Tony Z Zapata), Dawn Olivieri (Debbie O'Brien), Lewis Tan (Actor), Mo McRae (Gus Henderson), Meadow Williams (Holly), Brian Van Holt (Murph), Max Holloway (Bas).

 

If you’re going to steal, you may as well steal from the best. Den of Thieves is a L.A. set bank robbery film that desperately wants to be Michael Mann’s Heat, but of course cannot be, because nothing can be that great. It’s a film that flashes back and forth between the crooks and the cops, drawing parallels between the two of them, wanting to put them all on the same, morally dubious footing. The problem is that writer/director Christian Gudegast is no Michael Mann (no shame in that, no one is) –and he isn’t a William Friedkin either (To Live and Die in L.A. is another key influence here). Unlike those two directors, Gudegast cannot pull off the tricky balancing act between cops and criminals like they did, and he gets bogged down in a twisty, turny plot that wants to (and admittedly does) succeed in pulling the rug out from under us. Mann and Friedkin didn’t need to do that, because their films had some much else going for it. You almost wish that Gudegast had abandoned some of his delusions of grandeur here, and made what he clearly really wanted to – a pure heist movie. That’s where the movie is at its best. It’s when it strains to be serious, that the film feels like the 140 minute film that it is.

 

The film opens with a robbery by a professional crew, basically wearing paramilitary gear, as the rob an armored truck making an early morning donut stop. They don’t want the money inside the truck – they hadn’t picked any up yet, it’s empty – they want to truck itself. Things don’t go precisely as planned, and they end up killing a half dozen cops or so, but they get out. The crew is led by Merriman (Pablo Schreiber), along with Lieutenant Levi (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) and his driver, Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) – among others. Because of all the dead cops, the crime draws the attention of the Major Crimes unit, led by Nick (Gerard Butler), whose crew of cops is basically a criminal gang itself – they seemingly operate with no barriers at all, have lots of money, and if they feel like it, will kidnap and beat-up suspects. Eventually it becomes clear that Nick knows Merriman is planning something, and Merriman knows he knows, and the two basically engage in a dick measuring context to see who will back down first.

 

There is a lot I liked about Den of Thieves. The robbery sequences are well handled, and the various shootouts work better than most of their kind. The performances are, for the most part, quite good. Pablo Schreiber is particular is excellent as Merriman, and with this alongside Straight Outta Compton and Ingrid Goes West, I’m willing to say now that O’Shea Jackson Jr. is a better actor than his father. Even Gerard Butler, an actor I don’t normally like, and 50 Cent – who can come across as emotionless – basically work here. While the film is way too long, it’s never boring.

 

I do think the film strains too much for seriousness, that doesn’t make much sense. You could jettison everything involving Butler’s wife and kids (which plays like Butler and company doing a juvenile version of the scenes in Heat, where Pacino and his wife’s marriage collapses, and he takes his TV) and not lose a thing. Likewise, you could lose a scene involving 50 Cent taking his daughter’s prom date to the garage for a taking to (you don’t see that daughter before than scene, or after) which is Gudegast basically trying to outdo a similar scene in Bad Boys II. Whenever the film strays too far from its main narrative it becomes more than a little awkward and stilted.

There is much to like about Den of Thieves, but I don’t think the film ever completely comes together. It’s trying too hard to do too much, and as a result, it doesn’t do any of it particularly well. This is Gudegast’s debut film, and if nothing else, it proves he has good taste in influences. Now, he needs to do something more with them, other than simply try and copy them.