It wasn’t long after Den of Thieves hit theaters in 2018 that writer/director Christian Gudegast began working on a sequel to the heist movie. Now, seven years later, Big Nick is finally back, hitting the 2025 movie calendar with Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. This time Gerard Butler’s character is pursuing O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s Donnie Wilson after he escaped to Europe with plans to execute a new robbery. Critics were able to screen the flick ahead of its January 10 theatrical release, so let’s see what they’re saying about this second installment.
While seven years may have passed in real time, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera picks up right where its 2018 predecessor (available to stream with a Max subscription) left off, with Nick O’Brien reeling after being bested by the thief. Big Nick goes after Donnie, and what follows is a surprisingly good time, according to Christian Zilko of IndieWire, who grades it a B. Despite its mid-January release and ridiculously unserious subtitle, the Gerard Butler movie is far more entertaining than it has any right to be, the critic says, writing:
Pantera opts to embrace the silliness, trading the cat-and-mouse game for a buddy comedy dynamic between two charismatic characters. Big Nick is a caricature in the best senses of the world, a block of testosterone and self-loathing who takes his endeavors so cartoonishly seriously that it’s hard not to be immersed in his silly adventures. Jackson embodies Ronnie with even more charisma the second time around, and his whiz kid charm serves as the perfect foil to Big Nick’s intensity. Gudegast keeps the slick set pieces moving at such a brisk pace that you’ll have too much fun to stop and consider the logic of any of it.
Chris Bumbray of JoBlo gives it a “Good” 7 out of 10. The critic admits going in with low expectations but was pleasantly surprised by the slick sequel. Bumbray says Pantera is much more fun than the first film with its fresh Euro-style vibes, and he wouldn’t be surprised to see Den of Thieves 3 somewhere down the road. He continues:
While, just like the original, Den of Thieves 2 is too long (running over 140 minutes), the pacing is tighter, thanks mostly to the fact that it’s much more focused than the original film. In Den of Thieves, Gudegast, in trying to pay homage to [Michael] Mann, spent too much time on too many uninteresting side characters to give them pathos. He doesn’t get caught in that trap here, with Butler and/or Jackson rarely offscreen. It all builds up to a climactic heist sequence that’s punctuated by a nifty car chase/ shootout that’s very well-executed.
Matt Schimkowitz of AV Club gives Den of Thieves 2 a B-, saying this is lighter than the first movie, as Christian Gudegast has toned down moral ambiguities and cranked up the personalities and likability of the characters, making for a “funnier, chummier heist.” Schimkowitz says:
Rather than clashing with reality, Gudegast instead tones down the intensity in his sequel. Pantera is more Tenet than Thief, but the European air does Butler and Gudegast well, taking them out of their comfort zones and opening the door for a different kind of movie. Funnier and more focused on the homosocial bonding of its leads, Pantera is lighter on action and heavier on scenes of Nick and Donnie crashing scooters and burping up shawarma. The movie lives and dies by the chemistry between Butler and Jackson, coasting a bit on Butler’s dirtbag charisma to get him on the audience’s side.
Owen Gleiberman of Variety calls Den of Thieves 2: Pantera a satisfying impersonation of a high-end crime film, saying that Gerard Butler is good enough to lift “a piece of pulp so it almost seems like a real movie.” The critic continues:
The heist itself is brash, fun, and impossible to believe (which, for me, kind of tamped down on the fun)... Watching Den of Thieves 2, you don’t so much suspend your disbelief as slip it a sedative for about 25 minutes. Yet Gudegast, for all his casualness toward plausibility, is an energizing filmmaker. He keeps the mano-a-mano standoffs humming, and he’s got a sixth sense for how to showcase Butler as a glamorously disheveled schlock version of Dirty Harry–meets–Popeye Doyle-meets–Lethal Weapon-gone-lone-wolf.
Frank Scheck of THR, however, isn’t here for the sequel or the bromance, saying the chemistry between Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. isn’t as interesting as the director thinks it is. Add the too-long runtime, and Scheck calls this heist movie more “numbing” than invigorating. He writes:
‘Isn’t this case closed by now?’ wonders one of Nick’s police colleagues early in the proceedings, and viewers may find themselves asking the same thing as the film stretches interminably on. Butler employs his dependable rough-hewn charisma to typically fine effect, even if he’s more enjoyable in the Has Fallen series and such surprisingly fun one-offs as Plane. But Jackson too often seems out of his depth, his character coming across as more passive and reactive than threatening.
It sounds like if you’re able to suspend reality for long enough (probably too long) to go along for this buddy heist flick, you might be in for a good time. If Den of Thieves 2: Pantera sounds like the mid-January movie you’ve been looking for, you can catch it in theaters now.
