Den of Thieves – Better than I could possibly imagine

I didn’t expect much when I sat down to watch ‘Den of Thieves.’ Gerard Butler’s Box Office draw has long since faded and there were no other major stars attached.  All I knew was that the film was ‘long’ (well over two hours) and I even pictured myself walking out about half way if it really didn’t grab me.  Luckily, I was hooked long before the middle of the film!

If you’re bored of your typical ‘cops and robbers’ film, then this one does its best to be a little original.  The two things that stood out for me were the facts that it wasn’t so much ‘cops and robbers,’ as it was ‘bad cops and bad robbers.’ Seriously, the police didn’t act that much better than those who were robbing from banks in L.A. and gunning down anyone who tried to stop them.  The second thing was that normally this kind of film just concentrates on the cops who are out to catch the villains.  However, this time it felt like the robbers got equal screen time to those out to thwart them.  In fact, Gerard Butler was about the only officer of the law who you really got to know (out of his squad of about six men).  You actually got to see a lot more of the robbers’ home life and therefore understood their motivations (on top of just getting rich!).

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but you get the sense that this could go either way.  Will the robbers get their big score?  Will there be a twist or turn in the proceedings and, of course, who will make it out alive?  It is pretty violent, so expect a fair few scenes of torture, gunplay and general foul behaviour (and that’s just from the police!).

If the film does have a flaw then it’s the length.  I mentioned it was well over two hours and, although a lot of this is spent on establishing the characters, there are a few scenes (all of which involving Gerard Butler’s on-screen family) which drag and really do slow the pace down.  In some places I was just desperate for the bank-robbing portion of the story to start up again.  However, that’s a minor gripe.  I totally intend to buy this on DVD when it comes out and therefore may just skip those few scenes which I felt don’t really add that much.  Ultimately, if you’re looking for an excellent and action-packed, gritty cop thriller then this one will definitely keep you entertained.  Gerard Butler seems to have found his feet again after that awful ‘London Has Fallen’ nonsense!

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one