Den of Thieves, the first entry in the heist thriller series from 2018, was a quiet financial hit earning a worldwide box office return of $80.5 million box office on a reported $30 million budget. The sequel sees director Christian Gudegast and actors Gerard Butler, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Meadow Williams return to the helm of what execs must see as a potentially lucrative series — although, with this entry, any sense of optimism quickly becomes a distant dream.
Taking place immediately after the events of the first film, sheriff Nicholas "Big Nick" O'Brien (Butler) wastes no time letting the audience know he's still the biggest dog in the yard by being as badass as possible, doing things like rinsing his hands with no soap and splashing the same water on his grizzled face after a trip to the urinal at a courthouse.
Freshly jaded from divorce, Big Nick is cranky and on the edge, evident in such endearing scenes as when he threatens a stripper who he's slept with (breaking protocol) with an extended trip to China inside a shipping crate if she doesn't give up information on the man he's been chasing since the first film, Donnie Wilson (Jackson).
Jovanna, also known as Cleopatra (Evin Ahmed), Slavko (Salvatore Esposito), Dragan (Orli Shuka) and Marko (Dino Kelly) are among Donnie's new crew for the biggest job yet: stealing from the world's largest diamond exchange, a path that intertwines Donnie with the Pantera, one of Italy's most powerful crime rings.
The cliché heist movie staple of the cop-robber dynamic continues on from the first film between Big Nick and Donnie, but when Big Nick finally catches up with Donnie he has a little surprise for him: "You're going to steal that diamond, and I'm going to help you."
It's all part of the film's attempt at positioning Big Nick as the lovable anti-hero, coolly dangling between the lines of justice and vigilantism, yet all Butler seems to muster is a poor man's Jason Statham, a shell of his 2000s action film heyday.
The film borders on parody when introducing its cast of characters. Gudegast, who also serves as screenwriter, seems to think the more "fucks" and "shits" he plop onto the film's galactic and sometimes torturous nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime, the more interesting and edgy his characters might become. They, in fact, do not.
Bizarre forced romances, cringe-inducing dialogue and deus ex machina resolutions to key plot points aside, the film does legitimately shine through its action scenes, specifically the heist and shootout scenes — a rare yet impressive positive point within Pantera.
The titular Italian mob portions adds the film's most charming character: the Octopus (Adriano Chiaramida). A mob boss who crosses paths with Donnie and Big Nick thanks to a particular diamond he seeks, the Octopus is a witty scene-stealer, and, like any good mafioso, his humorous one-liners carry a stench of power behind them. Perhaps had the film featured more of the Octopus and his Pantera, the film would have more to offer.
Yet the film's biggest struggle remains establishing Donnie and Big Nick as a captivating duo that can carry such a lengthy runtime. For Jackson in particular, Donnie represents a true career low with a sloppy and sluggish performance as the mastermind thief. The actor is unable to truly disappear into the role, and that's not even mentioning his horrific attempt at a French-English accent when Donnie pretends to be from Cote d'Ivoire as an alias.
Evidently Den of Thieves 2: Pantera was inspired by the real-life 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, the largest ever heist of its kind in history. Let's just hope the actual thieves don't hear about what's been done with their story; they might be tempted to mount another heist to redeem their reputations.