Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera

2025 Lionsgate Films

Rated: R

Length: 2 hr 24min

Action ~ Suspense

Starring: Gerard Butler, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Evin Ahmad, Salvatore Esposito, Meadow Williams, and Swen Temmel.

It Pays To Switch Sides.

Synopsis:

Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. return in the sequel to 2018’s action-heist hit Den of Thieves. In DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA, Big Nick is back on the hunt in Europe and closing in on Donnie who is embroiled in the treacherous and unpredictable world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia, as they plot a massive heist of the world’s largest diamond exchange.

Movie Backstory:

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera was inspired by the real life Antwerp Diamond Heist in Antwerp, Belgium in February of 2003. In the city of Antwerp, Belgium lies The Antwerp World Diamond Centre where 84% of the world’s Diamonds make their way. Over the weekend of February 15-16, 2003 a crew of thieves stole loose diamonds, gold, silver and jewelry valued at over 100 Million Dollars. The group had planned and orchestrated details and surveillance for 18 months before enacting their heist.

The Diamond Centre Robbery in the movie mimics the real life diamond heist right down to the details of how they did it. Just like in the movie the group had gained access into the Diamond Centre and rented an office under the guise of being in the diamond industry. Even the depiction of breaking into the safe and other details of the robbery were based on the details provided by the real life robbers themselves. The real life thieves were caught but the majority of the good stolen were never recovered.

The Review:

After thoroughly enjoying Den Of Thieves last night I was really looking forward to Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera. At the end of Den Of Thieves it completely sets itself up for the sequel involving the Diamond Centre so you knew which direction 2 was headed. But you don’t see the twists coming as the movie unfolds, just like the original. There is not quite as much gunfire and violence as in the first one, that was like a war movie in some scenes. This one is a little more laid back in that department and instead focuses more on the heist itself.

Den Of Thieves 2 really goes into detail as it shows how they set up the heist in the Diamond Centre, just like the real life Heist. It does a good job of following Nick O’Brien (Gerard Butler) as he picks up Donnie Wilson’s (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) trail and hunts him down. It picks up exactly where the original movie ends with Nick struggling with his personal life and his divorce. And the disappearance of Donnie and any evidence that he committed a crime. In a surprise twist Nick seems to turn his back on his Law Enforcement career as he encounters Donnie, or does he or doesn’t he?

It follows Den Of Thieves penchant for twists and turns you didn’t see coming, right up until the last scene in the movie. Which completely sets itself up for a third installment in the Trilogy. And according to Variety in an article dated Jan. 30, 2025 by Katy Stephan that is currently in development:

Lionsgate, Tucker Tooley Entertainment and G-BASE are moving a third film in the “Den of Thieves” franchise into active development. It is expected that Gerard Butler will return to star and produce through his G-BASE banner, alongside partner Alan Siegel, and Lionsgate is in talks with franchise writer-director Christian Gudegast to return to write and direct. It is also expected that O’Shea Jackson Jr. will co-star in the third installment.

Earlier this month, Jackson Jr. told Variety he was hoping for more “Den of Thieves” in the near future. “I’m not gonna sugarcoat it: I’m trying to Vin Diesel this thing. To quote Ryan Reynolds, I want to work with Gerard until he’s 90,” he said. “I have such a family feel with these guys. I know how much I want to do these other films, but we cannot cheapen this beautiful thing that we made. This one took six or seven years to get done. I hope the next one doesn’t. In our heart of hearts, we won’t make it if it’s not right and if it’s not the same thing that made audiences fall in love with the franchise in the first place.”

I’m ready! I loved the first two and am ready for the third. I wonder where Den Of Thieves 3 will take us…………

Gerard Butler as ‘Big Nick’ O’Brien and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as Donnie Wilson in Den of Thieves 2: Panthera. Photo Credit: Rico Torres.

Gerard Butler as ‘Big Nick’ O’Brien in DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA. Photo Credit: Rico Torres for Lionsgate

O’Shea Jackson Jr as Donnie Wilson in DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA. Photo Credit: Rico Torres for Lionsgate

Den Of Thieves

Den Of Thieves

2018 STX Films

Rated: R

Length: 2 hr 19min

Action ~ Crime ~ Drama ~ Thriller

Directed by: Christian Gudegast

Starring: Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Evan Jones, Dawn Olivieri, Mo McRae, and Max Holloway.

“Loose lips sink ships.”

Synopsis:

Nick O’Brien (Gerard Butler) is the hard-drinking leader of the Regulators, an elite unit of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber) is the recently paroled leader of the Outlaws, a gang of ex-military men who use their expertise and tactical skills to evade the law. O’Brien, Merrimen and their crews soon find themselves on a direct collision course as the criminals hatch an elaborate plan for a seemingly impossible heist — the city’s Federal Reserve Bank.

THE REVIEW:

The movie starts out with:

2400 TIMES A YEAR. 44 TIMES A WEEK. 9 TIMES A DAY.

EVERY 48 MINUTES. A BANK IS ROBBED HERE.

THIS IS THE BANK ROBBERY CAPITOL OF THE WORLD.

LOS ANGELES

As a drone flying high slowly zooms down on an Armored Cash Truck driving at night on a street in downtown Los Angeles. The Truck pulls into a donut shop and two of the armed guards go inside for coffee and donuts. The Driver remains in the locked armored vehicle. Immediately after the two guards go into the doughnut shop two vehicles come flying into the parking lot in front and back of the Armored vehicle. Masked heavily armed men jump out and proceed to rob the armored vehicle. It quickly escalates and turns into an all out war as the police units start showing up. There is carnage, there are lots of bullets, there is lots of swearing, and there is tons of action. And that’s the first five minutes of Den Of Thieves.

It only gets more intense from there as we meet The Outlaws, the gang of ex-military men and convicts who use their past military skills to work as a criminal crew robbing anything that brings them a payday. And then there are The Regulators, the crew of tough corrupt policemen who operate somewhere between the Law and The Outlaws. Sometimes to catch the bad guy, you have to live like the bad guy. Both of these groups are hard core take no prisoner kind of guys. Not afraid to get down and dirty and spray the world with bullets. And each one of the groups is hell bent on achieving their goal at any cost. Heavily armed I might add.

Gerard Butler as Nick O’Brien, the hardcore hard partying streetwise cop not afraid to get his hands dirty is a complete bad-ass. As are all the men on both crews; Pablo Schreiber, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Evan Jones, Dawn Olivieri, Mo McRae, and Max Holloway. O’Shea Jackson Jr. turns out to be the sly one out of all of them, in a twist you didn’t see coming. Every step of the way as you think you know what they’re doing and how they are doing it, it turns out ya just don’t know what’s really going on. It is high caliber action and drama with a thrilling shootout and surprise twist in the end.

As my Dad would say it’s a Bang Bang Shoot ’em up! I don’t remember seeing it before but don’t know how I would have missed it. This is right up my alley, I love high action heist movies with lots of twists and this definitely delivers. I watched this last night so I could watch Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera tonight on Netflix. Watch it with me and let me know what you think, after last night I am looking forward to seeing it!

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Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera

Plane

2023 Lionsgate

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 47min

Action ~ Adventure ~ Thriller

Directed by: Jean-François Richet

Starring: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Yoson An, and Tony Goldwyn.

“The crash was only the beginning…….”

Gerard Butler stars as Captain Brodie Torrance, an airline Pilot for Trailblazer Airlines. He is piloting Flight 119 on New Years Day from Singapore to Tokyo. There are 114 passengers and three crew members on board. At the last minute Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), a fugitive wanted for murder is being brought on to the plane by the police. Handcuffed and with a police escort, he is escorted to the back of the plane. As Captain Brodie and his Co-Pilot Samuel Dele (Yoson An) prepare to take-off they notice that their flight plan takes them right through a very bad storm.

The Flight Director assures them that they will be fine flying into the storm. It is a shortcut and if they fly high enough they should avoid the worst of the storm. They take-off and shortly after encounter the storm. They climb high enough to avoid the turbulence, and at first everything seems to be ok. Then all of a sudden there is a lightning strike and the plane loses it’s avionics. As it gets tossed around, Captain Brodie takes a good hit to the side of his head. The Officer escorting Louis Gaspare and a stewardess who were unbuckled get knocked around like a couple of rag dolls and are killed.

Captain Brodie decides to use the ten minutes of battery power they have left to land as quickly and safely as possible, otherwise they will drop out of the sky and crash. They bring the plane under control and prepare to land in the water, but at the last possible moment Captain Brodie sees land. They manage to land on a dirt road and stop the plane with minimal damage but soon realize that it is a hostile island with no authorities. Gangsters and criminals run the island and Captain Brodie and Louis Gaspare team up to find a way to get the passengers out safely.

Like the tagline says, “The crash was only the beginning……..” It is a thrilling action adventure that will keep you on your toes. Gerard Butler is a bad-ass in this right behind Mike Colter who completely goes rogue and mercenary on the local criminal population. There is a lot of tense drama as they fight their way through trying to escape. Gerard Butler did a movie I reviewed last year entitled Last Seen Alive. I gave it and Gerard a pretty negative review, BUT he redeemed himself with this one. The Gerard Butler I’m used to, the down to earth normal guy who’s not afraid to kick your ass if he needs to. Anything he needs to do to save his passengers. He is the Captain and they are his responsibility and he takes that very seriously.

Yup, this is a good one!

Two Thumbs Up!

Daniella Pineda as Bonnie Lane, Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance, and Yoson An as Samuel Dele in PLANE. Photo Credit: Kenneth Rexach
Courtesy of Lionsgate

Mike Colter as Louis Gaspare in PLANE. Photo Credit: Kenneth Rexach
Courtesy of Lionsgate

PLANE Movie Poster
Courtesy of Lionsgate

Last Seen Alive

2022 Sky Cinema

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 35min

Action ~ Crime ~ Drama ~ Thriller

Directed by: Brian Goodman

Starring: Gerard Butler, Jaimie Alexander and Russell Hornsby.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret. I improvised the whole movie. I was only ever shown the first ten pages and even they were thrown away once we were on set.”

Gerard Butler stars as Will Spann who is driving his wife Lisa Spann (Jaimie Alexander) to her Mom and Dad’s house. They are going through a tough time in their marriage mainly due to Lisa’s recent one night affair with an old friend. She has decided that she needs a break and is going to stay with her folks for awhile. Just outside of the town where her folks live, they stop for gas. Lisa goes into the store and Will never sees her come out. Frantic, he searches the store, the restrooms, the parking lot and surrounding areas to no avail. He then calls 911 to report her missing.

Will then goes to Lisa’s folks house and tells them what happened. Not finding her there and alarming her folks, he heads back to the gas station to meet Detective Paterson who is assigned to look into the case. What follows is Will taking the law into his own hands and tracking down any clues as to what happened to Lisa. It leads him to a meth lab outside of town and a lot of unsavory characters, like “Knuckles” the handyman doing work on Lisa’s parents house, and Oscar, the gas station attendant who is a meth addict.

As I watched this I thought, first off, Gerard Butler sure seems like he’s overacting. It just felt off, a little too intense right off the bat. It didn’t get any better when he went to Lisa’s parents house. The first scene with them in it felt really bad. That sure is some bad acting, I thought. It didn’t get any better throughout the movie, if anything it seemed to get worse. Even the interactions between Lisa and Will felt forced, didn’t feel real, no depth, just hollow words. Just a lot of overacting.

The story was sketchy at best. As it goes along you find out that “Knuckles” the handyman had overheard Lisa’s parents talking while he was working on their house. He knew Lisa was coming to stay and that Will was a successful Real Estate developer. He came up with the idea to kidnap Lisa and make Will pay a Handsome Ransom to get her back. We find out later in the movie that “Knuckles” just happened to be at the gas station, just happened to see Lisa and forces her into his car without anyone seeing??? And then takes her to the meth lab outside town, where the Meth Kingpin decides he’s not going to worry about Ransom, I guess he doesn’t really need the money, and decides to bury Lisa in the back yard????

I always think about the review I’m going to write while I watch the movie. Not real intently, just generally. As I watched this I was thinking, Not much to say about this one, might be a short review. Definitely not one of Gerard’s better movies. The next morning when I write the review I always do a little research. And that’s when I found some info that put the whole movie into perspective for me. Gerard Butler posted on his Instagram account about LAST SEEN ALIVE. I think that summed it up and I couldn’t have said it any better about this movie. Here’s my thinking:

It feels like there was no storyline and the acting is terrible, not cohesive on any level, just overacting like they really didn’t know the storyline.

Here’s the quote from Gerard Butler’s Instagram account posted October 5, 2022:

“I’ll let you in on a little secret. I took this movie on as a fun challenge/experiment. I improvised the whole movie. I was only ever shown the first ten pages and even they were thrown away once we were on set. We shot the movie in 8 days. I was drawn to the idea of how it would feel stepping into scene after scene having no idea what was gonna be thrown at me. I’ve never taken on anything like that and it was both challenging and exhilarating. You can’t help but be in the moment.”

So it was an experiment by Gerard and the director Brian Goodman.

A failed one in my opinion.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a Gerard Butler fan, I like his movies….just not this one.

Don’t waste your time, there are way better Gerard Butler movies out there, HUNTER KILLER for example. Now that’s a good Gerard Butler movie!

Two thumbs down…..way down.

Hunter Killer

2018 Lionsgate

Rated: R

Length: 2 hrs 1min

Action ~ Thriller

Directed By: Donovan Marsh

Starring: Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Common, and Linda Cardellini.

“Did we just start a war?….No, but we might have sailed into one.”

Gerard Butler stars as Captain Joe Glass who is tasked with taking charge of the Hunter Killer class U.S. Submarine USS Arkansas. A Hunter killer Class submarine is outfitted to hunt and destroy another submarine, a Boomer is a nuclear armed Submarine. Another US sub The Tampa Bay has gone missing in The Berents Sea and Captain Glass’s mission is to quickly investigate.

The Arkansas quickly embarks and finds The Tampa Bay on the bottom of the ocean floor. They quickly discover another Russian sub sunk on the bottom as well. And that’s when the excitement really starts. They are quickly engaged in a battle for survival as another unknown vessel tries to destroy them. Throw in a group of Navy Seals tasked with secretly going into Russia and a potential Russian Military coup and you’ve got yourself one hell of a thriller.

Hunter Killer is an old-school submarine action movie where Gerard Butler plays a straight-ahead, no-frills sub captain who feels like a regular guy put in charge of a high‑stakes mission. Gary Oldman is electric as the fired‑up Pentagon boss, shouting through the big strategy scenes, while Common plays the cool, steady admiral trying to keep everyone level. Butler, Oldman, and Common together gives the movie enough star power and energy to make it a solid, turn-your-brain-off action watch for a Streaming Movie Night.

This is an edge of your seat action thriller I thoroughly enjoyed.

Go Navy!

Highly recommended!

Two Thumbs up!