Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.
Den of Thieves is a competent, gritty LA crime thriller that wears its Heat influence proudly but lacks the depth and originality to transcend its inspirations. The plot is serviceable and engaging enough, with solid procedural detail around the heist mechanics, but it's clearly derivative of the LA crime thriller template. Acting is workmanlike — Gerard Butler is suitably brutish and Pablo Schreiber holds his own, though neither performance is especially memorable. Cinematography is functional and gritty without being particularly distinctive. The film earns its highest mark for its ending — the final twist recontextualizes the entire film in a satisfying and clever way that genuinely elevates the experience above what came before, making it one of the stronger heist-movie payoffs of recent years.