182.
Den of Thieves
It's been a couple of weeks since I have seen a 'shoot'em'up' and I was really expecting a whole lot from this one. It had a decent looking cast, with Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Gerard Butler and his crazy slanted mouth, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and a couple of other familiar faces. From the trailer, it was easy to see that this was going to be a gritty, crime movie, full of bullets and explosions. We already know the plan, which seems an impossible one, but will this movie be the Keystone Cops or bring on the Heat?
We are straight into the action as an armoured truck pulls up at a coffee shop, only to be set upon by a team of robbers, led by Ray. The guards attempt a defence but fail, with their deaths being the end, until the police arrive. The crew finally make it back to their hideout, only for Ray to pull up Donnie, played by O'Shea Jackson Jr, on the fact that he killed the first guard and put everyone in danger. The next morning, Gerard Butler turns up on the scene, playing a detective, nicknamed, 'Big Nick'. This guy looks as if he lives on some stiff whiskey, dirty women and sleeps on a mattress on the floor, the rough bastard. He has been following the crew for a while and Ray holds a grudge against him for killing one of his guys in the past.
Nick is a clever guy, has his fingers in many pies and knows where to find Donnie, who is working at the bar as his day job. He makes small chat, friendly, as to not let on why he is there, until he corners him outside in the parking lot and knocks him out. Donnie wakes to find himself handcuffed to a chair and a gang of officers about to interrogate him. They want to know Ray's plans, knowing that he has something big in the pipeline. Donnie explains that the only reason he is there, is because Ray knows he's a good getaway driver, other than that, he never gets told anything. We do get treated to a flashback though, as Ray has taken the crew to a multi-story car park opposite Federal Reserve, with him explaining his plan to steal 40 million from there, which won't be missed, as it's only going to get shredded.
Back with the gang, Donnie is made to get a job as a Chinese delivery guy and sneak into the Federal Reserve to scope the place out. Climbing through the vents, he hasn't really got a great job. We then get to see a different side of Nick, a more vulnerable side. He sneaks into his home, early one morning, to be countered by his wife, questioning where he's been. She kind of knows that's he's been messing around with other women and mainly strippers, so she angrily gets their daughters ready and leaves him. Even with him pleading, in a weakness we didn't expect to see, she hits him, gives him an ear full and finally leaves. She even sends divorce papers to him a few days later, in front of his work force. What you expect to be a few nights later, Nick runs into Donnie, who he has been asking to keep him updated on the crew's runnings, at a restaurant with the crew. This makes Ray suspicious after Nick calls Donnie out and back at the hideout, Ray has his second in command, Levi, beat some information out of Donnie. Levi is played by Curtis Jackson, a figure I expected to be more prominent in this movie. Donnie assures them that he hasn't told anyone anything about the robbery.
Once shit had settled down, Ray sets a stripper onto Nick in order to get some information on him, she even takes Nick back to a place that Ray is hiding and he squares up to Nick, with the option of doing something, he chooses nothing and leaves, along with Nick's phone. Later one, Levi's daughter brings her prom date over and the kid is taken into a room for the father, boyfriend chat. He is introduced to the whole crew and a couple of extra big guys, as they try to intimidate him, making sure he does nothing to hurt the daughter. The kid must be shitting bricks and once he's left, all the lads have a laugh about it. Meanwhile, Nick isn't taking things too well and crashes a get-together that his soon-to-be ex-wife is having with some friends and acts aggressively, before being told to leave. Away from this, he is actually still trying to have contact with his daughter, even if it's through the school, fence, which is a little dodgy.
We are finally at the day of the heist. This is usually a good signal that we are drawing to a close of some sort. So, the plan goes as follows. Ray and his crew invade a small bank, taking hostages and Nick and his men are outside as the shit hits the fan. Ray gets in touch with the Chief of Police, through the bank manager and to prove he is serious, he gets one of his men to take a hostage to the back room and shoot her. The message is relayed that the crew want a large sum of money and a chopper to get away. They then proceed with blowing the vault and escape through a hole in the floor, just before Nick and the police enter. They also find the hostage who was supposed to be shot, still alive and only frightened. They get out of the tunnels and head straight to the Federal Reserve. Donnie heads to the toilets, again posing as a delivery boy and takes out a bag of food that he had hidden there a few days before. He is in the main building, making sure that the lads take all of the money they need, as the cameras and power are having the usual dodgy five minutes that you expect with this kind of movie. They end up in a van and using a fake ID to escape through security. Donnie has trouble trying to escape, as he didn't sign in that day to deliver, but as the security try to get him, he's already gone. Instead, he is caught by Nick, who has shot the guy who cut the power and has taken Donnie, beating him until he gives up where Ray is heading.
Ray has ended up cutting Donnie and another guy from the team as he tried to escape along with Levi. They hit traffic and a gun fight ends up taking place between innocent cars. To be fair, the police do warn the drivers to start ducking or heading backwards, but there isn't much stopping these bullets. A few other men from the gang have caught up and begin the escape too, only to be shot dead, alone with Levi, but Ray keeps running. Nick keeps the chase on as he shoots Ray though a fence, injuring him. He refuses to go down quietly, and it ends with Ray being shot dead and Nick winning the day. When Nick goes to inspect Ray's van for the money, all he finds are bags of shredded notes. He also finds out that Donnie has escaped custody. The movie finally draws to a close with Nick heading back to that bar that Donnie worked at, seeing pictures hanging on the wall of Donnie with some of the members that Nick knew from the heist. We are treated to some flashbacks, as we are shown that Donnie had planned this all along, from the start and to use the crew and escape with the real money. It finally hits Nick, that not only he was, but the robbers were fooled by Donnie. We then scoot over to London, where Donnie is now working behind another bar. The men left from the original crew, who were actually Donnie's mates, are celebrating their win. A man from the shop opposite comes in and as Donnie serves him, he asks about the diamond shop that he works at. Leading to Donnie giving him the drink on the house. Is there more to come?
So, this movie was really made by the ending for me. I was so lost in all of the shooting, I didn't see the twist coming at the end. It was quite cleverly concealed because this character seemed so young and quiet, but they always so it's the quiet ones that you need to watch. The acting was pretty decent throughout, with Butler being the stand out for me. Being able to play this cop above the law but also showing a fragile side was quite interesting. He got to the point where he had lost it all and became a man possessed. The rest of the movie and the build-up isn't too special and seems to carry on with the normal cops and robbers theme. The only difference being was, at times, you were wondering if it was bad guys versus bad guys, with these cops, not going along the line of the law with their methods. It was hard to see who to route for and with normal heist movies, you were always willing, in some way, for the criminals to win. They did by the end of this one, but not in the way you were going to expect. A twist within a twist only adds to the excitement.
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