You may be as surprised as I am that I enjoyed DEN OF THIEVES. After all, it does star Gerard Butler, who reliably makes bad films. But this was a pretty good testosterone-filled caper, especially for this time of the year.
Don’t get me wrong. It still had its share of bad cop movie cliches:
- The bad boy cop who plays by his own rules
- Criminals getting operational details of a heist target that they just would not be privy to
- An obligatory visit to a strip club
- Cops who beat the shit out of people to get information
- Interagency turf wars that degenerate into shouting and dick-measuring right there at the crime scene
You know the drill. But I was still entertained; so why not? If you’ve already seen the Oscar-bait, this will be a good palate-cleanser. Daniel Day-Lewis’s final film is in current release but how many automatic weapons, tough guy tattoos, explosions, and expended rounds of ammo do you think there are in PHANTOM THREAD? None, that’s how many.
And you’d think a dress-maker would go to at least one strip club. They’ve got lots of money and really need clothes! But no. That’s just not a problem in DEN OF THIEVES.
