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The globe-trotting caper \u201cDen of Thieves 2: Pantera,\u201d a sequel to the schlocky 2018 action film, is a convoluted movie bolstered by entertaining set pieces.<\/p>\n
In \u201cPantera,\u201d Los Angeles sheriff Big Nick (Gerard Butler) travels to Nice, France, to find the expert thief Donnie Wilson (O\u2019Shea Jackson Jr.), whom he suspects was the mastermind behind the Federal Reserve Bank robbery that unfolded in the original movie. This time, Nick tracks Donnie down not to arrest him but to join his criminal enterprise, the Panthers, and stage a heist of the impenetrable World Diamond Center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Nick and Donnie\u2019s sudden friendship gives the writer-director Christian Gudegast\u2019s film a shaggy hangout movie feel not unlike \u201cFast & Furious\u201d (2009). Cop and robber party together, share their pained back stories and unoriginal jokes about French cuisine and evade a local police squad known as Pantera. A tacked-on subplot \u2014 a Sardinian mobster demands that Donnie return a stolen diamond \u2014 and the break-in\u2019s detailed planning push this macho film along.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In its second hour the film locks in. Robbers methodically snake through the diamond center under a time crunch. A thrilling getaway car chase through the mountains recalls Michael Mann\u2019s \u201cHeat\u201d as the camera closes in on Nick, hanging from Donnie\u2019s car window and shooting vengeful former accomplices.<\/p>\n
\u201cDen of Thieves 2: Pantera\u201d isn\u2019t groundbreaking, but it delivers what it promises: lovable scoundrels trading bullets and traversing borders.<\/p>\n
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera<\/strong>
Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 2 hours 24 minutes. In theaters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n