Title – Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (2025) 

Director – Christian Gudegast (Den of Thieves) 

Cast – Gerard Butler, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Evin Ahmad

Plot – Following on from the events of the first film, Big Nick (Butler) is back on the case of career criminal Donnie Wilson (Jackson Jr.) who is now based in Europe and seemingly planning the score of his lifetime in the diamond district of Nice. 

“Nothing good ever happens in a suit”

Review by Eddie on 07/02/2025

There’s no denying that 2018’s Den of Thieves was the equivalent of ordering Heat off Temu but director Christian Gudegast’s Gerard Butler starring heist action/thriller managed to find a decent audience and garner enough fans to warrant a return with this years Pantera. 

A direct follow-up to the first film, with its main characters Nicholas ‘Big Nick’ O’Brien and Donnie Wilson and stars Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. returning for another heist-centred go around, Pantera transplants the action from Los Angeles to the stunning surrounds of Europe and more specifically the French city of Nice where Donnie has his eyes set on a daring job right in the heart of the diamond district of the city. 

Clocking in at a whopping and fairly unnecessary two hours and twenty four minutes in length, Gudegast appears to be confident to back his product in as Pantera takes some odd creative decisions that include more comical aspects than the first po-faced venture with Donnie’s terrible English accent, Big Nick’s nightclub escapades and a collection of the most unfit looking career criminals you’re ever likely to see all and a lot of plodding that takes away from the good stuff that includes a fun heist and some twists much like the first film. 

With so much flab (literally and figuratively) it’s hard for Pantera’s good moments to overcome the bad/boring ones that are front and centre more often than not and with this iteration of the Thieves brand allotting more time between Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr., the limits of their range and charisma is more pronounced without the likes of 50 Cent or Pablo Schreiber to be able to take some of the spotlight off them and carry the film when it gets overbearingly stale or tiresome. 

With such an over the top plot, even more so than the first, Pantera would have done well to allow itself to have more fun with its core heist concept and side segments that includes an underused Panther mafia angle, for as it stands there’s a strong likelihood that many who enjoyed the first outing will find enjoyment here while many others wont, not stopping the studio behind the Thieves franchise from already greenlighting a third entry to come our way in the near future. 

Final Say – 

There’s some enjoyment to be taken from Den of Thieves: Pantera when the heist action kicks in but around that is a lot of baggage and far from sufficient character moments that all weigh down an overlong film that seems to have forgotten what audiences want from it. 

2 croissants out of 5