By Sandra Hall
DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA
★★★½
(M) 130 minutes, in cinemas
Testosterone spills all over the screen in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. Like the original, it stars Gerard Butler, who’s beating up a hand dryer when first introduced. He’s in a bathroom of the family law courts after being divorced by his long-suffering wife, and his beard is even more bushy and his look even more grubby than the first time around.
Gerard Butler in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.Credit: Lionsgate
Fortunately, we soon move to a more photogenic setting. Butler’s “Big Nick” O’Brien is assigned to go undercover in the south of France by way of bringing down Donnie Wilson (rapper O’Shea Jackson Jr), his old antagonist, who got the better of him in the first film. Donnie has joined a gang of European thieves to carry out another seemingly impossible heist, and in an astonishing blow for feminism, the chief architect of the scheme is a woman. It’s Jovanna (Evin Ahmad) who’s recruited Donnie to be the gang’s inside man. Posing as a diamond dealer, he’s cultivating contacts at Nice’s international diamond exchange in preparation for the gang’s nocturnal raid on the place.
Implausibly, Nick manages to convince Donnie that he’s done with the Los Angeles police force, or perhaps they’re done with him – I wasn’t quite sure on this point – and he’s accepted by the gang as a new member. Admittedly, there are a couple of recalcitrants who don’t take to him. Tough guys from the Balkans, they’re even more macho than he is. But in another implausible turn of events, the glamorous Jovanna is attracted to him and no more questions are asked.
Supposedly inspired by real-life examples, the heist scenes are so tightly plotted that they’re absorbing enough to carry the movie. The details are convincing and director Christian Gudegast, who did the original film, keeps you in a simmering state of suspense. He doesn’t confuse speed with action by bewildering you with fast cutting. You know exactly where you are and what has to be done and refreshingly, the bloodletting is kept to a minimum.
And when the script brings the Mafia into the picture, the resulting twist may strain credibility, but I was willing to go along with it. Against my expectations, I’d been won over.
The setting helps. Although the shoot took place in Spain and the Canary Islands, Gudegast successfully evokes the Riviera as well as taking us on side trips to Sardinia and the Cinque Terre. And despite the hand dryer encounter, Butler is a little more restrained this time. He doesn’t swagger as energetically as usual, and Jackson Jr, who gets just as much screen time, doesn’t swagger at all. It’s an engagingly thoughtful performance and because of it, the camaraderie between Donnie and Nick gives the film some depth.
It’s not up there with the great heist movies. Butler lacks the charm to generate that kind of appeal, but it has quite a lot going for it. It’s certainly more likeable than its predecessor.
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