Criminal mastermind Donnie Wilson (O’Shea Jackson) has set his sights on the World Diamond Center in Antwerp, Belgium. His nemesis, L.A. cop “Big Nick” O’Brien (Gerard Butler), gets wind of this and heads overseas to stop him. Nick is broke from a divorce proceeding, though, and he eventually decides he’d rather join Donnie in the heist than arrest him for robbing the Federal Reserve Bank in the first film. In order to steal the goods, they and their team have to find a way to get past the designed-to-be-impenetrable security measures inside the vault.
For a good ninety minutes, Den of Thieves 2 is more of a character study than an action flick. Writer/director Christian Gudegast spends time depicting the uneasy rapport between Nick and Donnie, along with showing how the former works to integrate himself into an already-formed crew, some of whose members view him with suspicion. When sticking to the two main characters, this section provides important development of their personalities. When it focuses on other things, such as Nick’s flirtation with the team’s female organizer, Jovanna (Evin Ahmad), the pace slows down considerably. Trimming some of the fat would have made for a tighter story.
Once the plot gets to the heist, the time flies right by. Seeing how they break into the vault is thrilling, especially as the men traverse up and down an elevator shaft. Additional suspense comes from wondering if Donnie will screw Nick again, or if perhaps Nick will screw Donnie this time. Later on, there’s a very taut car chase/shootout on the country’s notoriously twisting roads. There may be a couple of lulls in the picture, but it nails the big finale, which makes those lulls easy to forgive.
Both leads give good performances. Butler, in particular, appears to be having fun. He makes Nick bitter, disheveled, and highly sarcastic. You can sense how far this guy has fallen since the original. The actor infuses him with a livewire quality that rightly makes it difficult to pin down what Nick’s true angle is. Butler and Jackson establish an appealing chemistry together, suggesting their characters are two sides of the same coin.
Heist movies almost always offer a baseline sense of entertainment. It’s hard to resist seeing how those heists are pulled off. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera has a really gripping heist at its center, and because we get to know these two men better, the stakes feel sufficiently high. Of course, the film ends with the set-up for another sequel. I’ll probably have to read the Wikipedia synopsis for this one before I see any potential follow-up. Still, I’d gladly sit through a third installment.
out of four
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is rated R for pervasive language, some violence, drug use, and sexual references. The running time is 2 hours and 24 minutes.
© 2025 Mike McGranaghan