Filed neatly between Cruel Intentions 2 and Dumb And Dumber To in the “Unexpected Sequels” drawer, Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera comes seven years after the Gerard Butler-fronted action thriller Den Of Thieves. It seems time has mellowed the now-franchise a bit, as the first entry was a much more brash and bawdy bank robbery saga, while Pantera generally plays things a bit cooler and more collected. A change of setting could be mainly responsible for the shift, the predecessor a gritty cops and robbers tale out of Los Angeles and the successor a Rififi riff centered in France’s World Diamond District. Crucially, returning players Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. get much more screen time together and mine terrific chemistry with each other. I didn’t know I needed a Den Of Thieves sequel but after seeing Pantera, I’d certainly welcome another.
As teased at the end of Den Of Thieves, Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera finds wheelman-turned-criminal mastermind Donnie Wilson (Jackson Jr.) overseas on the hunt for world-class jewelry. His latest hold-up at an Antwerp airport puts him back on the radar of “Big Nick” O’Brien (Butler), still out to find the culprits of the Federal Reserve robbery from the previous film. A trip across the pond confirms Nick’s suspicion that Donnie has indeed moved his operation to Europe but when the two meet, Nick claims he’s left the LA Sheriff’s Department behind and wants in on Donnie’s latest score. After some initial reluctance, Donnie invites Nick to join his band of “Panthers” to knock off the vault of the World Diamond Center in a heavily guarded sector of Nice, France.
An area that Den Of Thieves largely falters that the superior sequel streamlines is in the character development between the beats of planning the central heist. Donnie was very much a side character in the first movie, while Nick’s character moments were couched in cop clichés, exemplified by a lengthy scene where he drunkenly confronts his soon-to-be ex-wife about recently-served divorce papers. Pantera finds more success in having these two characters initially parlay with hesitancy but gradually find partnership in their shared experiences on opposite sides of the law. Does it really seem likely that Nick would team up with Donnie after the events of Den Of Thieves? Put frankly: not really. But Butler and Jackson Jr. make their time together electric enough that it doesn’t matter much.
Writer/director Christian Gudegast also lets us in more this time when it comes to the details of how the thieves are going to go about their mission. While dazzling, the extended robbery sequence in Den Of Thieves gets quite convoluted and it can be easy to lose track of what exactly is going according to plan and what isn’t. Pantera‘s major setpiece occurs around the hour-and-a-half mark and by that point, we’ve been treated to numerous insert shots and voiceovers relaying how the Panther crew is intending for things to go down. The break-in is either very quiet or completely silent but thanks to the groundwork established by Gudegast and terrific editing from Roberth Nordh, the heist is both easy to follow and unbearably tense at the same time.
Although it doesn’t always feel its length, Pantera almost scrapes up against the two-and-a-half hour runtime marker and could certainly have some fat trimmed to make the rest of the movie as exciting as the climactic burglary. Den Of Thieves had a similar issue at 140 minutes but the extraneous scenes there — most obviously one where Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s character shakes down his daughter’s prom date — seem much easier to pick out. Pantera certainly isn’t without the occasional macho posturing carried over from the original but on the whole, it’s a more mature and thoughtfully-constructed crime caper that ends with another cliffhanger. The Den might not have felt as cozy on the first go ’round but with Pantera, Christian Gudegast has welcomed in action aficionados the world over with open arms.
Score – 3.5/5
New movies coming this weekend:
Opening in theaters is Wolf Man, a horror film starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, following a family at a remote farmhouse who is attacked by an unseen animal and as the night stretches on, the father begins to transform into something unrecognizable.
Also playing only in theaters is One Of Them Days, a buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA, about a young woman and her roommate who race against the clock to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact when the former’s boyfriend takes their rent money.
Streaming on Netflix is Back In Action, an action comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx, revolving around a duo of former CIA spies who are pulled back into the world of espionage after their secret identities are exposed.