Den of Thieves 2: Pantera movie review: Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. duel across lovely locales in serviceable heist film

A still from ‘Den of Thieves 2: Pantera’

Heist movies are excellent fun and Christian Gudegast follows up his 2018 film with another go-around for hard-living Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officer Nick O’Brien (Gerard Butler). Opening with the slick, smart heist from the cargo area of a Brussels flight, we move to LA where Nick dumps his wedding ring and divorce papers in the trash.

Nick draws a line between Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), the barkeep/mastermind who bested him in the first movie and the Brussels job. He somewhat convinces his boss people to let him chase after Donnie in Nice, and soon Nick is off to sunnier climes, coffee and croissants. In Nice he plays the big dumb American in France mispronouncing croissant and salmon for good measure, much to the gloomy disgust of police chief Hugo (Yasen Zates Atour).

A still from ‘Den of Thieves 2: Pantera’

Donnie, meanwhile, has found a new Euro crew, Pantera, which includes Jovanna aka Cleopatra (Evin Ahmed) of the long, spiky lashes, Slavko (Salvatore Esposito), Dragan (Orli Shuka) and Marko (Dino Kelly) — the boys are just referred to as Ronin 1, 2 and so on. The Brussels flight job was to bankroll the main job, which is the World Diamond Center in Nice.

The Brussels caper includes a jolly pink diamond, which unfortunately belongs to a mafia don, “The Octopus” (Adriano Chiaramida), who naturally wants it back. Pink diamonds and Pantera might remind you of Pink Panther, but this is a very different movie.

Donnie sets himself up as a businessman to access the safe with all the loot with some help from Chava (Nazmiye Oral), who seems to be the fixer extraordinaire. There is also the Concierge (Stéphane Coulon), who has to be got around. There is a big game that everyone talks of going for — I thought they were going to the stadium, but no, they were just watching it on telly at a bar.  

The heist, the centerpiece of the movie, is quite well planned and executed even if the distraction of the ball game is rather inexplicable. The cars hurtling down winding roads and tunnels is exhilarating as are the lovely, sunlit locations with Tenerife standing in for Nice — again Canary islands after La Palma! Butler is reliable as ever and his chemistry with Jackson Jr spurs the action along. Though long at almost two-and-a-half hours, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, is thankfully not loud, bludgeoning you senseless with sharp cuts and pounding music. Despite some unfathomable plot twists, it is a mellow action movie, and in short, the perfect January film.    

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is currently running in theatres