Monday 29 January 2018

Movie review: Den of Thieves (2018)



[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]

Nota bene: for other movie reviews, click for the dedicated page with movie reviews.


Den of Thieves (2018)

[IMDB]


Entertaining.

Smart and coherent storyline, which develops nicely over time.

Resembles some other movies I've watched:
  • Triple 9 (2016) [Liviu review]
    • All bad guys die in Triple 9, while here only Donnie Wilson (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) manages to escape.
    • The same as bad guys in Triple 9, Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber) pretends taking a shot at 'Big Nick' O'Brien (Gerard Butler) so he gets shot to death.
  • The Usual Suspects (1995) [IMDB]
    • Important details unravel somehow the same over time.
    • Donnie Wilson (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) is a small replica of Keyser Söze by the way he manipulates everyone.
  • Hell or High Water (2016) [Liviu review]
    • The general attitude; the mix of irony and drama.
    • Just as Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) loses his partner in the end and gets upset about it, so does 'Big Nick' O'Brien (Gerard Butler) lose a member of the team and is sad about it.

Whenever the story is about to drag something happens and it takes off again.

Really funny at times.

Action and special effects - enough to keep it going and keep one focused on the story. Could have used more, of course :)

Drama - enough to engage the viewer, while not get one bored.

Rather average acting skills when analyzing each performance alone - all actors try pretty hard to do a good job, but can't quite rise to a high level... However, the screen time is very well balanced among all characters/actors, which makes the overall acting/performance seem a lot better than the sum of all raw performances.

Very good directing and postprocessing - raises the overall quality of the movie, enhances the overall acting, makes the story seem interesting at times when it might not be etc. - I have this feeling they've done a lot of magic with somewhat limited resources.


With a better cast, they could have produced a classic. Imagine for starters Jeff Bridges or Russell Crowe playing 'Big Nick' O'Brien (Gerard Butler), Tom Hardy playing Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber)...


Conclusions


Worth watching for sure.

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