A couple of Panteras (CREDIT: Rico Torres)

Starring: Gerard Butler, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Meadow Williams, Swen Temmel, Michael Bisping, Orli Shuka, Cristian Solimeno, Nazmiye Oral, Yasen Zates Atour, Giuseppe Schillaci, Dino Kelly, Rico Verhoeven, Velibor Topic, Antonio Bustorff, Cyril Gane

Director: Christian Gudegast

Running Time: 144 Minutes

Rating: R for Guns, Fists, Bad Words, and a Few Hits of E

Release Date: January 10, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Detective Nicholas O’Brien (Gerard Butler) might go by the nickname “Big Nick,” but they oughta call him Ahab, considering the white whale he just can’t let go of. That Moby Dick would be Donnie Wilson (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), who bested Big Nick and the city of Los Angeles several years ago with a twisty heist, and now he’s arrived in France for his next big score. But Nick is hot on his tail, and it looks like he wants to … help him out? It’s true, or at least it seems that way, as he embeds himself right within Donnie’s crew and talks a big game about abandoning the rule of law. Or, you know, it could be that he’s just finally decided to flex his undercover entrapment skills.

What Made an Impression?: Well, the first thing that made an impression is that I actually kinda liked Den of Thieves 2. Or at the very least I thought it was an improvement over the original Den, which felt like it was cosplaying more acclaimed urban American crime sagas. But Pantera manages to be its own thing by sprucing itself up on a whole new continent. The two-hour plus runtime feels more patient than indulgent, with writer-director Christian Gudagest confidently assembling various factions on his sprawling chess board. The dialogue is a lot less clever than the plotting, but at least there’s a certain self-aware charm to Butler’s macho-overload bluntness at this point in his career.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is Recommended If You Like: Cheap vibes crossed with high production values

Grade: 3 out of 5 Diamonds