Den of thieves
Gerard 'stabby' Butler has built something of a career in Hoĺlywood starring in a series of dumb yet weirdly entertaining nonsense that back in the eighties/nineties would have ended up as the perfect accompaniment to eight cans of larger and a takeaway pizza. The thing is, however critically trashed they get they tend to be watchable, if not actually fun. Hell as utterly stupid as it was, London has fallen was never boring.
Even so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this. It's two and a half hours, some of it flab that could be cut. However it feels much shorter. The easiest way to describe it is Michael Mann's HEAT as reimagined by Cannon films. Butler is playing an utter grotesque. An overweight, sweaty, chain smoking drunk. He's not too interested in the tiresome routine of cop work. Instead he and his crew kidnap and torture suspects for information while partying with whores. He contaminates crime scenes and is perfectly fine with letting the crew of bank robbers know he's on to them, playing a dick measuring game (Not literally!) While the crooks try and get on with the task at hand. We get scenes of Bultlers cop getting divorced from his wife that serve little purpose other than to show what a knob he is. Something we're all too aware of. Scenes like these are the flab and honestly could have been cut.
While the whole is not the sum of its parts with this film the film has enough well executed scenes including some terrific robbery scenes and an entertaining ending.
I don't normally rate films out of ten, however I'd say this is a solid 7/10 if I had to.
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