Review:
I had no expectations for Den of Thieves, a mediocre heist film released in January starring Gerard Butler and 50 Cent, much to my surprise I really enjoyed this throwaway crime-thriller for better or worse. If nothing else, it was great to see Butler give a decent performance.
There's not a lot to the story (Despite the absurd length), cops vs criminals and it all collides leading up to a daring heist the criminals are planning. Only this time the cops are corrupt. It's nothing special or particularly interesting, but I have a real soft spot for both heist films and films about corrupt cops.
Gerard Butler is far and away the best part of this whole thing. His performance is odd, fascinating and unhinged. There's moments of brutality and he's actually quite funny too. Although I'm not entirely sure if I was laughing at the film or with it. This is the sort of role Butler was born to do, not those awful rom-coms or family dramas he seems to get roped into.
For a first time director, Christian Gudegast does an insanely good job and shows real promise as a director. He films action extremely well, the set-pieces have shades of Michael Mann in them while retaining it's own gritty and visceral style. There's not actually a lot of action here, but Gudegast manages to create tension within most of the scenes (One of the final scenes reminded me quite a lot of the highway scene in Sicario, although obviously not as effective).
For the problems, the script is a total trainwreck, it's utter trash. Which makes me sound like I hated it, but I actually had a lot of fun with just how bad some of the lines were and the big twist at the end is one of the most outrageous things I'm likely to see from a 2018 film. I was in disbelief at that sequel-baiting final shot.
With such a big ensemble cast of characters, everyone aside from the two leads are very underdeveloped. Butler and O'Shea Jackson Jr. steal the spotlight, but everyone else is just left as blanks. Pablo Schreiber (Pornstache from Orange is the New Black) is just wasted in a forgettable villain that does not earn any of the emotional payoff it thinks it deserves towards the end. Most of the emotional payoffs are actually laughably bad (One involving a single tear drop was outstanding).
Being nearly two and a half hours does this whole thing no favours either, this is barbarically overlong and the could have used some serious trimming in the middle during the build-up to the heist. There's a really breezy action-film here, but at 140 minutes, it is a bit of a slog.
Den of Thieves is what it is, a January throwaway action film with some incredibly directed action, a committed performance from Gerard Butler and it's just a fun trashy time overall, it could have just done with some trimming and a better script. Really hope to see a spin-off starring Gerard Butler's 'Big Nick' though.
6/10 Dans
Den of Thieves is out now in cinemas in the UK
Watch the trailer:
Twitter: @FigmentReviews and @ArronRoke91
Instagram: @thesurprisingadventuresofdanb and @ArronRoke
YouTube: Figment Reviews
Letterboxd: Dan and Arron
No comments:
Post a Comment