Movie Review: Den of Thieves Commits Grand Larceny By Stealing from ‘Heat’ but Misses The Mark
Den of Thieves is the latest of a long list of films that attempt to recreate Michael Mann’s classic, Heat.
Like so many other films before it though, Den of Thieves falls flat. Yes the cinematography is great and the action scenes are intense. And the overall A plot is fairly good. There’s even a nice twist at the end of the film. The problem is, the B & C plots that flesh out the characters are poorly executed. Heat worked so well because the characters felt real and we bonded with them. Having Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as the leads didn’t hurt either. Director Christian Gudegast is clearly a fan of Heat, evident by the fact that some scenes feel so similar they blur the line between homage and straight up theft. If only he took more cues from the nuances of the subplots in Heat.
Den of Thieves isn’t bad but it’s also a disappointment. The film could have easily been shortened by removing the watered down subplots. At the end of the day you could watch this film but if you’re going to sit this long for a movie about cops versus robbers you might as well just watch Heat instead.
