They shouldn't be calling this Temu Heat. It’s understandable as to why Den of Thieves gets mocked. Gerard Butler-led movies can be a mixed bag. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson doesn’t scream must-see movie. The story feels derivative, and the director's lack of credits could easily be off-putting. The Blu-ray cover is ugly and uninviting. But no. They shouldn’t be calling this Temu heat. They shouldn’t be slandering the good name of this movie.
With Den of Thieves 2 released earlier this year, I rewatched the original 2018. The first film is the reason for this mini-marathon of heist films. Unlike the other movies I’ve written about this month, Den of Thieves barely sniffs at anything socioeconomic. However, like Face (1997) and Set it Off (1995), Den of Thieves is unironic in delivery and assured in its execution.
The assuredness starts from the first frames, giving the audience a statistic that is a delectable piece of glorious nonsense: 2400 times a year. 44 Times a Week. 9 Times a Day. Every 48 Minutes. A Bank is Robbed here.
It’s an absurd, pretend factoid that gets you pumped for what you’re about to watch yet crumbles once you place any second of logical thought upon it. But there’s no time for rationality now. Den of Thieves follows through with an audacious camera shot, starting from the L.A. skyline before quietly swooping down to ground level. Filmmaking has become easier. It's saddening that such impressive camerawork doesn’t get the love it deserves. Listening to the Blu-Ray commentary, because I am old, I'm informed the shot is a helicopter shot that transitions to a drone shot that then shifts to a camera shot on a Russian arm. It’s seamless. If used in something a little more "high art,” there’d be no doubt that the shot would be fawned over by film students for years. It turns up however in a 2018 Gerard Butler heist flick. Occurring after a hilarious bunch of fake statistics. This opening is summed up in three words: Slick and dumb.
What Den of Thieves director Christian Gudegast has accomplished is no small feat. I mean slick and dumb as a compliment. There’s a lunkheaded elegance in what he’s created. This is hard to do. Constructing a large-scale crime movie which implies Machiavellian scheming and grand tragedy yet is silly enough to be boiled down to a bunch of toxic scumbags jousting with their appendages. The film taps into something primal. And manages to be disgracefully entertaining while doing so. There are no clear good or bad guys, just an unhinged clashing of brutes who wish to drag everyone into the dirt with them. It’s difficult to watch such despicable characters and yet have them remain engaging. To have you wonder how much damage they are willing to inflict on those around them.
Here's a smattering of plot. A group of ex-marines, led by Ray Merrimen, perform a hijacking of an armoured truck which leaves a substantial number of casualties. Detective Nick “Big Nick” O’Brian and his crack squad of deputies set out to investigate the case. At first, things don’t seem to add up. Why would this crew steal an empty truck? However, the plan soon materialises. It turns out that Merrimen is looking to rob the Federal Reserve Bank situated in downtown Los Angeles. It’s down to Big Nick and his team to stop Merrimen from performing a heist deemed “impossible”.
Den of Thieves is two and a half hours long. A running time anyone busy may baulk at. It’s not like we’re dealing with any heavy narrative here. Yet Christian Gudegast knows how to spin a yarn of noxious machismo. In between the crisply executed set pieces and solid performances, is a heist narrative that could be called Meathead’s Oceans 11. Gudegast has a deft hand at not only building the characters but also framing them around the absurdity that the illogical elements of the narrative don’t matter. No one is likeable here, yet their stories are so engaging, there’s a perverse desire to watch them manoeuvre around each other.
Comparisons to Heat (1995) are understandable, especially when considering the location, characters and aspects of the plot. However, thematically Den of Thieves would make a fascinating double bill with Gerard Johnson’s Hyena (2014). A British crime thriller which situates its characters in an equally grim, testosterone-fuelled world, where no one is “good”, and rooting for any character feels fruitless. The only real sliver of politics seems to lie here. Merrimen’s crew, once a team of Marines, are now using the skills learned in warfare to steal money from their own country. This is done under the guise that “no one will see the bills” that they seize due to the intricate way the bills are removed from circulation. In the real world, this is nonsense. However, in this film's universe, it's a bit of poetic licence the audience should ignore to allow them to discover the unsubtle subtext of the American ex-military have yet again come home to an unjust and uninterested homeland and have to steal from the government to live.
The film takes time to establish members of Merrimen’s team as pretty on-the-level family men despite their career in thievery. In comparison, Big Nick's complete wreck of a homelife is not unlike James Wood’s Lloyd Hopkins' in Cop (1988). It would be easy to argue that the moral compass of either character has been tempered by principal magnets. Big Nick’s obsessive desire to catch Merrimen is less about it being the right thing to do, and more about being the only thing left in his life. He feels more interested in getting into his foe's head over being on the right side of the law. The concerning thing is that Merrimen is more than willing to match Nick’s rashness.
This is my favourite Gerard Butler performance. As a performer, I find similarities to Jason Statham. They’re never cast for their range, although watching Butler in Dear Frankie (2004) is a good showcase of his ability to show sensitivity. The two actors both have a tactile ruggedness that often suits the roles they inhabit far better than they are given credit for. Big Nick is the perfect blend of rough, wide-eyed and reckless for Butler. A man seemingly designed to get under the skin of everyone he meets, but to disregard him seems equally as hazardous, and Nick wants to make sure you don’t ignore him. In turn, Pablo Schreiber is a superb foil as Nick’s adversary Merrimen. Bringing with him a quiet intensity. It’s more than a little pleasing to watch these two scummy peacocks’ posture at each other. Sometimes without a word being said.
Despite its indulgent running time and ludicrous plotting, Den of Thieves is a solidly executed piece of gruff, gritty male thuggery. The film isn’t the balls-to-the-wall actioner that it was marketed to be, but this isn’t to say Gudegast doesn’t know his way around a violent shootout. The film’s finale is brutally effective. Some reviews have lambasted a supposedly needless earlier scene involving 50 Cent going full Bad Boys 2 on his daughter’s prom date. Yet Gudegast gives Jackson’s character a payoff that while it could have easily left on the cutting room floor, delivers a small moment of emotional significance that could have easily been lost. It’s no Val Kilmer and Ashley Judd, but then again, what is?
Den of Thieves may have you question the freshness of Chinese food, security details and the reasonings behind hiring sex workers. Yet as the hare-brained scenarios get more fervent, the film is never dull. The centrepiece heist is an absurd plan, but I can’t say I didn’t have fun figuring it all out again on this latest watch. For all the film's frayed edges, the film builds to a satisfyingly silly finale. One which quenches the thirst for B-movie action, while delivering a finish which alters previous scenes upon watching a second time. Den of Thieves more than leans on its homages. But it never feels tacky while doing so. Nor does it have the self-seriousness which has derailed other crime movies released around a similar time. I’m looking at you Triple 9 (2016). I’m still upset that the star-studded crime thriller has seemingly landed John Hillcoat in director’s jail.
Den of Thieves has obtained a sequel, and there are talks that the now franchise will have two more entries in the pipeline. At the time of writing, I have yet to see Den of Thieves: Pantera. However, if Pantera is anything like its predecessor, I’m sure that the film is in more than capable hands. It just needs to maintain the tone—slick and dumb.
