Director: Christian Gudegast
Cast: Gerard Butler, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Meadow Williams, Swen Temmel
Screenplay: Christian Gudegast
144 mins. Rated R.

2025 is here, as is a slew of questionable January releases.

When the first Den of Thieves came out, I checked it out and was shocked at the lengthy slog it ended up being. All the same, I was interested to see where writer/director Christian Gudegast would take a sequel, which can often be a little more impactful when it comes to the crime/action genre. While Den of Thieves 2 is a slight improvement over the original, and it hints at some genuinely excellent ideas, it’s still a bloated and mostly meandering mixed bag.

After a robbery at a European airport, Big Nick O’Brien (Gerard Butler, How to Train Your Dragon) is certain it’s the continued work of criminal mastermind Donnie Wilson (O’Shea Jackson Jr., Cocaine Bear), who escaped arrest in Los Angeles some time prior. Big Nick travels to Nice, France in an effort to stop him and finds himself going undercover to rob the world’s largest diamond exchange.

Den of Thieves 2 changes up the formula slightly, a welcome advancement, and as most of the characters from the first film were dead, Gudegast’s script gets more time to focus on Big Nick and Donnie. The further development of Big Nick is helped by Butler’s charismatic personality, essentially fusing the actor and character into one being that mostly works. Butler is becoming like Nicolas Cage, able to uplift just about any role simply by being existing. Jackson’s Donnie is more confusingly plotted this time around. While I appreciate the more playful nature to his character this time around, he seems a lot dumber in this sequel for someone who is supposedly a criminal mastermind from the first film. As we didn’t get to dive into his “real” character in the first film, I don’t think he plays it poorly, but I doubted his ability to pull off the events of the first film even more with this character turn. Still, it makes for a more enjoyable film, as Butler and Jackson have great chemistry.

Den of Thieves 2 also features a terrific diamond heist set piece. Gudegast’s screenplay lulled me into thinking things were not going well until he threw a wrench into the whole proceedings. The entirety of the sequence is exciting and has some great twists and turns that I did not fully anticipate, and the way they play out worked rather nicely heading into the films finale.

The biggest detriment to the story of Den of Thieves 2 is that everything before the heist sequence is dull and aimless, with several character choices being bafflingly confusing, and everything after the heist sequence is predictable and by-the-numbers. Gudegast had an opportunity to ask some interesting questions about Nick’s character and his choice to put himself undercover rather than use the full support of the French police in his quest, and the nature of being undercover and the murky waters it brings, but he only hints at it as the film nears its closing. His screenplay hints at some exciting ideas but doesn’t pursue them, seemingly comfortable with a number of plot conveniences, which reach ludicrous levels in the climax.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is very much more of the same, though I applaud the injection of comedy to the overall narrative and the execution of a great heist sequence alongside some terrific chemistry between Butler and Jackson (though they play less like the characters from the first film in the process). I think fans of the first will enjoy this one, and while I had a little more fun this time around, this two-and-a-half-hour run time is far too sluggish and meandering to recommend overall.

2.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe