Curator Watchlist
A loud, greasy cops-and-robbers thriller with real commitment to macho posturing, tactical detail, and hangdog charisma. It’s overlong and derivative, but if you want a pulpy, late-night crime movie with attitude, it delivers enough swagger to stick.
Where to watch: Buy
Thu · 2h 20m
Director: Christian Gudegast
Starring: Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr.
A gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.
Christian Gudegast
Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr.
A loud, greasy cops-and-robbers thriller with real commitment to macho posturing, tactical detail, and hangdog charisma. It’s overlong and derivative, but if you want a pulpy, late-night crime movie with attitude, it delivers enough swagger to stick.
Den of Thieves is a shamelessly derivative crime movie that knows exactly which classics it’s raiding, then cranks the volume up and covers everything in grime. The result is less elegant than its inspirations, but also more shambling and weirdly memorable, especially when it leans into the absurdity of its own hard-ass swagger.
Gerard Butler gives the movie its engine as a wrecking-ball cop who looks permanently hungover and somehow makes every scene feel like a challenge. The heist mechanics, surveillance games, and street-level LA texture are often more compelling than the plot’s twists, which can feel overstuffed and familiar.
Still, there’s a definite pleasure in how committed it is to being a big, dumb, muscular crime saga. If you’re in the mood for a bruising procedural with enough personality to outlive its flaws, it’s an easy one to sample and a surprisingly easy one to remember.
Josh Lewis (4★) · 1518 likes
Heat by way of Monster energy drink. A cops-and-robbers brotherhood crime drama and cat-and-mouse warring crews procedural thriller that has all the toxic machismo and tactical tech fetish you could ask for with an extra dose of grease stains and muscular pulp in place of the tragic, existential romance of Mann. My man Gerry B was born to play this violent, drunken, newly-divorced gorilla cop "Big Nick" who spends every waking moment stuffing his grubby face with cheap food and
Will Menaker (4★) · 1168 likes
By the opening scene I knew I was going to love this movie, by the time Gerard Bulter rolls up to his house after cheating on his wife while listening to Everlast's "What It's Like", I knew I would think about it for the rest of my life. A modern classic.
matt lynch (3.5★) · 991 likes
Redoing the De Niro / Pacino meetup from HEAT but instead of Kate Mantilini it's a shitty teppanyaki joint in Torrance kind of sums up this wonderful piece of junk food that you should look forward to watching on TNT approximately one million times. Gerry Butler staring off into the middle distance like a real fiend for mojitos.
Josh Lewis (4★) · 582 likes
Hadn't revisited in a number of years and had almost forgotten how this is easily one of the greatest January Trash surprises we've ever gotten. Happy to report that it holds up and we got it right! Gerard Butler was truly a man possessed by the filthy scumbag energy of Big Nick in this; how often can you truly say you vividly remember scenes of dialogue in this type of movie? (This had so many: "Oh fuck, give me the
Katherine Krueger (1.5★) · 515 likes
gerald butler plays the drunkest, most divorced man of all time. a friend called this Heat for dumb guys and was exactly correct
A polished bank-robbery thriller with strong procedural momentum, crew dynamics, and a working-class criminal code.
Smart, controlled heist filmmaking that balances cat-and-mouse tension with character-driven negotiation.
A grimy ensemble crime film with corrupt-cop energy, tactical detail, and a bleak urban atmosphere.
For the same appetite for tension, surveillance, and professional violence, but with far sharper craft and dread.
A swaggering, morally rotten LA crime story that thrives on volatile performances and street-level menace.
A leaner, more grounded heist thriller with old-school crime-movie pleasures and solid momentum.
For viewers who like meticulous planning, tactical action, and a crew of professionals under pressure.
A slicker, crowd-pleasing heist movie that emphasizes team dynamics and execution over grit.
A modern crime drama that treats the mechanics of a heist with seriousness while keeping the character stakes high.
A veteran-crook heist film with cat-and-mouse energy and a focus on professional competence.
A stylish criminal puzzle with crew dynamics, shifting loyalties, and a strong sense of mythmaking.
A lean, talky crime film about criminal brotherhood, suspicion, and the fallout from a botched job.
heist planning, cops and robbers, male rivalry, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, surveillance and tactics, urban crime, moral compromise
crime thriller, action, heist, procedural, gritty, macho, cat-and-mouse, LA, 2000s-style throwback, pulpy