NEW YORK (OSV News) – Will Gerard Butler’s unorthodox Los Angeles police detective Nicholas “Big Nick” O’Brien cross over to the dark side? That’s the question returning writer-director Christian Gudegast is hoping viewers will be asking themselves as his slow-paced, overly detailed heist sequel “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” (Lionsgate) unfolds.
O’Brien’s flirtation with felony is intended to add some dramatic ballast to what is otherwise merely a slick succession of capers and car chases. And, for their part, viewers of faith will welcome the fact that, as O’Brien wavers, his conscience troubles him during a visit to a Catholic church.
Yet, while the film’s ultimate outcome is morally sound in some respects, it’s blatantly unacceptable in others. In fact, the audience is meant to leave the Cineplex satisfied with the way in which, for at least one character with whom they are meant to sympathize, crime ultimately turns out to pay.
Shifting the primary action from the Left Coast to Europe, Gudegast has O’Brien once again on the trail of one of the wrongdoers of the first movie, Donnie Wilson (O’Shea Jackson Jr.). O’Brien’s pursuit is fueled by his dissatisfaction over the outcome of the investigation chronicled in the original, which involved a raid on the La La Land branch of the Federal Reserve Bank.
Wilson has now teamed up with the Serbian gang of the subtitle. They’re plotting a massive diamond theft in the South of France. With his personal life in shambles following a bitter divorce, O’Brien mulls the benefits of abandoning law enforcement in favor of collaborating in the burglary.
Aesthetically, a good deal of what follows might better have been left on the cutting room floor. Ethically, the wrap-up toward which the elaborate, meandering plot leads seems to indicate that Gudegast and his collaborators wanted to have it both ways — with virtue rewarded but vice recompensed as well. That’s not a comfortable philosophical fence on which to sit.
The film contains wayward values, much stylized violence with brief gory images, drug use, a few instances each of profanity and milder swearing, pervasive rough language, frequent crude and crass dialogue and obscene gestures. The OSV News classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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