
Den Of Thieves ****
A modern day heist movie thriller that sees a gang of ex soldiers
turned bank robbers hunted by renegade corrupt cops whilst they attempt the
ultimate heist of robbing the Federal Reserve.

Den Of Thieves plays well into the
format and offers many twists and thrills in a film that Is trying desperately
hit above it’s weight.
The film which is going to be compared on some level to great
Heist genre films like Heat does
attempt to stray into it’s own unique territory.
The first element that provides uniqueness in this story is it’s
totally unknown who we really are rooting for if anyone. We have the cop
killing bank robbers on one side and corrupt torturing cops on the other.
Talking of which it’s a pleasure to see Gerard Butler after years
of hollow pay check roles in Geo Storm
or London Has Fallen, and let’s not
forget (No matter how much the therapy cost) Gods Of Egypt that here he actually hands a great performance of a
haggard, drink abusing, suspect abusing, wife abusing, hard as nails corrupt
sheriff.

The bank robbers on the other hand it’s hard to really sympathize
with any after the opening sequence sees them kill half a dozen cops and
security men just doing their jobs.
This however is the uniqueness of it all the real life aspect of
trying to separate good from bad or bad and worse well you get the idea.
The film offers twists in the tale that one point play out the
genre beat by beat then start providing alternate beats to misdirect then back
on the main plot.
Being a LA Heist Movie and being in the same genre as Heat which was which contained a epic
climatic shoot out you know Den Of
Thieves is going to try and give it a run for it money and surely its does.
The build up to the shoot out is thrilling and with characters as
flawed as these you have no idea who’s for the fatal bullet.
A final Ocean’s 11 sequence near the end breaks the tone of the
overall film but still its faults, mini plot holes etc are forgiven with a
ambitious thriller that tries harder than most.
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