{"id":137215,"date":"2025-01-10T10:19:23","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T10:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/10\/more-fun-than-the-original\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T10:19:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T10:19:23","slug":"more-fun-than-the-original","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/10\/more-fun-than-the-original\/","title":{"rendered":"More Fun Than The Original"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Den of Thieves 2 is a surprisingly respectable sequel that improves upon the unique. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"4ofuKUctzGE\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Is DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA Better Than the First?\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4ofuKUctzGE?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>PLOT: <\/strong>After his life is ruined within the wake of his reckless conduct, LASD cop Nick O\u2019Brien (Gerard Butler) heads to Antwerp to trace down his former foe, Donnie Wilson (O\u2019Shea Jackson Jr.). However, as an alternative of revenge, Nick desires to money in and joins forces with him to rob the World Diamond Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>REVIEW:<\/strong> I wasn\u2019t the world\u2019s greatest fan of the unique <em>Den of Thieves<\/em>. It felt like a lame retread of <em>Heat<\/em>, albeit with none of Michael Mann\u2019s type and substance \u2013 however hey, what do I do know? Against all odds, the unique movie was a sizeable hit, so right here we&#8217;re six years later with a sequel, <em>Den of Thieves: Pantera<\/em>. I wasn\u2019t anticipating a lot however I used to be pleasantly shocked by how a lot I loved this slick sequel, which, to me, had a novel, Euro-style vibe that felt contemporary in the best way its predecessor didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Set in Belgium, the movie revolves round O\u2019Shea Jackson Jr\u2019s Donnie constructing a European crew to tear off the Antwerp World Diamond Center. Writer-director Christian Gudegast, who returns from the unique movie, was impressed by a real-life heist that occurred again in 2003. He does a pleasant job making this a extra grounded heist movie than normal, with him avoiding the over-the-top components one would possibly anticipate within the wake of the <em>Fast Saga<\/em>, to which this has a number of similarities, most notably how Gerard Butler\u2019s character figures into the plot.<\/p>\n<p>In the primary movie, Butler\u2019s Nick O\u2019Brien was such a comically over-the-top, hyper-macho protagonist that the film was onerous to take significantly, with him coming off as virtually cartoonish. Yet, within the sequel, they present that his behaviour had some actual penalties, with it costing him his job and his household, together with his spouse submitting for divorce and taking the youngsters. Thus, the film has him throw in his lot with Donnie and his gang, opting to assist them pull off their heist for a minimize that may set him up for all times.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"538\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2-gerard-butler-acl-1024x538.jpg\" alt=\"Gerard Butler, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, ACL\" class=\"wp-image-818969\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2-gerard-butler-acl-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2-gerard-butler-acl-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2-gerard-butler-acl-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2-gerard-butler-acl.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Now, <em>Den of Thieves: Pantera<\/em> isn\u2019t good, with the most important flaw within the film being how shortly Jackson\u2019s Donnie buys Nick\u2019s story and cuts him into the gang. He\u2019s imagined to be a genius-level mastermind, so it\u2019s onerous to swallow him taking Nick at his phrase, contemplating how few scruples his former antagonist had within the first movie. Yet, it does give Butler and Jackson the prospect to construct some buddy film chemistry, which, coupled with the Euro-locale, helps make the sequel much more enjoyable than the unique.<\/p>\n<p>In current years, Butler\u2019s excelled in making mid-level motion movies, together with his world-weary characters much less glamourous and extra plausible than many different motion heroes of word. In a Butler film, he received\u2019t all the time have the higher hand on all of the dangerous guys, and regardless of now being a criminal, he\u2019s oddly extra sympathetic than he was within the first movie. He\u2019s a man who\u2019s coping with the implications of his selections, and Butler performs him with simply the correct amount of machismo and humour. By comparability, Jackson has much less to work with however appears to be having a ball in his buddy scenes with Butler and is convincing because the \u201cbrains\u201d behind the heists, with him soft-spoken and cerebral in comparison with the ultra-testosterone-fueled Nick.<\/p>\n<p>While, identical to the unique,<em> Den of Thieves 2<\/em> is simply too lengthy (working over 140 minutes), the pacing is tighter, thanks largely to the truth that it\u2019s far more targeted than the unique movie. In <em>Den of Thieves<\/em>, Gudegast, in making an attempt to pay homage to Mann, spent an excessive amount of time on too many uninteresting facet characters to offer them pathos. He doesn\u2019t get caught in that entice right here, with Butler and\/or Jackson not often offscreen. It all builds as much as a climactic heist sequence that\u2019s punctuated by a nifty automotive chase\/ shootout that\u2019s very well-executed, even when the film ends on a word that the majority motion connoisseurs in all probability have already got discovered simply based mostly on the trailers.<\/p>\n<p>All stated, I loved <em>Den of Thieves: Pantera <\/em>far more than I believed I might. With the sunny European locales and worldwide flavour, it\u2019s the right mid-level January launch and may show in style sufficient amongst Butler\u2019s followers that I wouldn\u2019t be shocked if we ultimately get a 3rd film within the collection. It\u2019s surprisingly enjoyable!<\/p>\n<div class=\"movie-rating\">\n<div class=\"rating-left\">\n                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"656\" height=\"343\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2-656x343.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2-656x343.jpg 656w, https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2-1002x524.jpg 1002w, https:\/\/www.joblo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/den-of-thieves-2.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 656px) 100vw, 656px\"\/>                <\/div>\n<div class=\"rating-right\">\n<p>\n                        <span>7<\/span>\n                    <\/p>\n<div class=\"user-review not-yet-rated\">\n<div class=\"viewer-review-score\">\n<p>\n                                    &#8211;                                <\/p>\n<h3>Viewer Ratings <span class=\"total-viewer-ratings\">(0 opinions)<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Den of Thieves 2 is a surprisingly respectable sequel that improves upon the unique. PLOT: After his life is ruined within the wake of his reckless conduct, LASD cop Nick O\u2019Brien (Gerard Butler) heads to Antwerp to trace down his former foe, Donnie Wilson (O\u2019Shea Jackson Jr.). However, as an alternative of revenge, Nick [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[3726,3740],"class_list":{"0":"post-137215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hollywood","8":"tag-fun","9":"tag-original"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}