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Gerard Butler Letting Loose Is a Beautiful Thing to Behold
If the first Den of Thieves was a meathead remake of Heat, the sequel feels like a meathead remake of Miami Vice.
Butler reprises his role as “Big Nick” O’Brien, a Los Angeles Major Crimes Unit detective who found himself outwitted at the end of Den of Thieves by bartender and getaway driver Donnie Wilson (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), who was revealed to have masterminded that film’s Federal Reserve robbery.The crooks’ scheme there was particularly clever: It involved a plan to steal the enormous piles of money the Fed shreds every day. Pantera belongs in that long line of sequels that seem to lose patience with simply replicating an earlier film’s dynamics and opt instead to just let us bask in freewheeling character interactions. These pictures sometimes get dinged by initial audiences — think Ocean’s 12, or 2 Fast 2 Furious, or even Mission: Impossible 2, which made loads of money but forever earned fans’ ire — but eventually find some sort of acceptance.
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