Movie · 2018 · Crime, Thriller, Action · 2h 20m · R · English
Curator score: 1.2/10 (155.1K ratings)
Cops without limits. Thieves without fear.
Overview
A gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.2/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 42%
Metacritic: 49
TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Christian Gudegast
Production
Atmosphere Entertainment MM, Diamond Film Productions, G-BASE, Tucker Tooley Entertainment, STXfilms, Mark Canton Productions
Cast
Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr., 50 Cent, Meadow Williams, Maurice Compte, Brian Van Holt, Evan Jones, Mo McRae, Kaiwi Lyman, Dawn Olivieri, Eric Braeden, Jordan Bridges, Lewis Tan, Cooper Andrews, Marcus LaVoi, Nate Boyer, John Lewis, Ron J. Rock, Malieek Straughter
Where to watch
Netflix, AMC+, AMC, Philo, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A loud, greasy cops-and-robbers thriller with real commitment to macho posturing, tactical detail, and hangdog charisma. It’s overlong and derivative, but if you want a pulpy, late-night crime movie with attitude, it delivers enough swagger to stick.
Best for
fans of gritty heist movies
viewers who like macho, banter-heavy crime dramas
people who enjoy procedural cat-and-mouse plots
audiences looking for a trashy but entertaining action watch
Skip if
you want originality over homage
you’re allergic to bro-y dialogue and toxic masculinity
you prefer tightly paced thrillers
you need polished realism over pulpy excess
Overview
Den of Thieves is a shamelessly derivative crime movie that knows exactly which classics it’s raiding, then cranks the volume up and covers everything in grime. The result is less elegant than its inspirations, but also more shambling and weirdly memorable, especially when it leans into the absurdity of its own hard-ass swagger.
Worth noting
Gerard Butler gives the movie its engine as a wrecking-ball cop who looks permanently hungover and somehow makes every scene feel like a challenge. The heist mechanics, surveillance games, and street-level LA texture are often more compelling than the plot’s twists, which can feel overstuffed and familiar.
Bottom line
Still, there’s a definite pleasure in how committed it is to being a big, dumb, muscular crime saga. If you’re in the mood for a bruising procedural with enough personality to outlive its flaws, it’s an easy one to sample and a surprisingly easy one to remember.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Josh Lewis (4★) · 1518 likes
Heat by way of Monster energy drink. A cops-and-robbers brotherhood crime drama and cat-and-mouse warring crews procedural thriller that has all the toxic machismo and tactical tech fetish you could ask for with an extra dose of grease stains and muscular pulp in place of the tragic, existential romance of Mann. My man Gerry B was born to play this violent, drunken, newly-divorced gorilla cop "Big Nick" who spends every waking moment stuffing his grubby face with cheap food and… more Heat by way of Monster energy drink. A cops-and-robbers brotherhood crime drama and cat-and-mouse warring crews procedural thriller that has all the toxic machismo and tactical tech fetish you could ask for with an extra dose of grease stains and muscular pulp in place of the tragic, existential romance of Mann. My man Gerry B was born to play this violent, drunken, newly-divorced gorilla cop "Big Nick" who spends every waking moment stuffing his grubby face with cheap food and… more
Will Menaker (4★) · 1168 likes
By the opening scene I knew I was going to love this movie, by the time Gerard Bulter rolls up to his house after cheating on his wife while listening to Everlast's "What It's Like", I knew I would think about it for the rest of my life. A modern classic.
matt lynch (3.5★) · 991 likes
Redoing the De Niro / Pacino meetup from HEAT but instead of Kate Mantilini it's a shitty teppanyaki joint in Torrance kind of sums up this wonderful piece of junk food that you should look forward to watching on TNT approximately one million times. Gerry Butler staring off into the middle distance like a real fiend for mojitos.
Josh Lewis (4★) · 582 likes
Hadn't revisited in a number of years and had almost forgotten how this is easily one of the greatest January Trash surprises we've ever gotten. Happy to report that it holds up and we got it right! Gerard Butler was truly a man possessed by the filthy scumbag energy of Big Nick in this; how often can you truly say you vividly remember scenes of dialogue in this type of movie? (This had so many: "Oh fuck, give me the… more Hadn't revisited in a number of years and had almost forgotten how this is easily one of the greatest January Trash surprises we've ever gotten. Happy to report that it holds up and we got it right! Gerard Butler was truly a man possessed by the filthy scumbag energy of Big Nick in this; how often can you truly say you vividly remember scenes of dialogue in this type of movie? (This had so many: "Oh fuck, give me the… more
Katherine Krueger (1.5★) · 515 likes
gerald butler plays the drunkest, most divorced man of all time. a friend called this Heat for dumb guys and was exactly correct