Movie Review: Den of Thieves: Pantera


The new movie “Den of Thieves: Pantera” is a sequel to “Den of Thieves,” released in January 2018, during the ‘January effect” period when bad or low-rated movies are released. I find it interesting that a low-grossing (80 million) movie released seven years ago would get enough production support to convince anyone that there should be a sequel. The first movie was average at best and was considered a run-of-the-mill action movie at the time.

The new film once again stars Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as the only returning characters for the new movie, which does go in new directions. The problem with caper movies like this one is that almost all of them require so much setup to fill in the audience on what will happen and how it will happen, that the story slows down with too much filler, which is the case with this movie – that has too many areas that are slow.

What does work is the friendship between Nick O’Brian and Donnie Wilson, played by Butler and Jackson. There is some story trickery at the end, that I thought worked well, and a car chase and gun shooting scene through the winding roads of a mountain that was very well filmed. Unfortunately, the end of this chase scene involved a completely illogical appearance of other criminals at the top of this mountain, when there was no way they could have been there. Continuity, and logic errors like this, especially in an action movie can not only ruin a scene but in some cases, the entire film.

It is interesting to see Gerard Butler who starred in the great film “Olympus Has Fallen”, released in 2013, trying to recreate that huge hit with another action movie as good or even better. So far, this has not happened, more evidence of how difficult it is to write and produce a highly rated box office hit in the movie industry.

The Rotten Tomatoes reviews for this film are a low 62% with my rating around 70% and a mild recommendation.

Golden Globe Winners: 2024


Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

  • Zoe Saldaña, “Emilia Pérez” — Winner
  • Ariana Grande, “Wicked”
  • Selena Gomez, “Emilia Pérez”
  • Felicity Jones, “The Brutalist”
  • Margaret Qualley, “The Substance”
  • Isabella Rossellini, “Conclave”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy

  • Jean Smart, “Hacks” — Winner
  • Kristen Bell, “Nobody Wants This”
  • Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”
  • Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”
  • Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”
  • Kathryn Hahn, “Agatha All Along”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

  • Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain” — Winner
  • Yura Borisov, “Anora”
  • Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown”
  • Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”
  • Jeremy Strong, “The Apprentice”
  • Denzel Washington, “Gladiator II”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama

  • Hiroyuki Sanada, “Shōgun” — Winner
  • Donald Glover, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”
  • Jake Gyllenhaal, “Presumed Innocent”
  • Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”
  • Eddie Redmayne, “The Day of the Jackal”
  • Billy Bob Thornton, “Landman”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Television Series

  • Jessica Gunning, “Baby Reindeer” — Winner
  • Liza Colon-Zayas, “The Bear”
  • Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”
  • Dakota Fanning, “Ripley”
  • Allison Janney, “The Diplomat”
  • Kali Reis, “True Detective: Night Country”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Television Series

  • Tadanobu Asano, “Shōgun” — Winner
  • Javier Bardem, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
  • Harrison Ford, “Shrinking”
  • Jack Lowden, “Slow Horses”
  • Diego Luna, “La Maquina”
  • Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy

  • Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear” — Winner
  • Adam Brody, “Nobody Wants This”
  • Ted Danson, “A Man on the Inside”
  • Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”
  • Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”
  • Jason Segel, “Shrinking”

Best Screenplay — Motion Picture

  • Peter Straughan, “Conclave” — Winner
  • Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez” 
  • Sean Baker, “Anora”
  • Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold, “The Brutalist”
  • Jesse Eisenberg, “A Real Pain”
  • Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”

Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television

  • Ali Wong, “Single Lady” — Winner
  • Jamie Foxx, “What Had Happened Was”
  • Nikki Glaser, “Someday You’ll Die”
  • Seth Meyers, “Dad Man Walking”
  • Adam Sandler, “Love You”
  • Ramy Youssef, “More Feelings”

Best Motion Picture — Non-English Language

  • “Emilia Pérez” — Winner
  • “All We Imagine as Light”
  • “The Girl with the Needle”
  • “I’m Still Here”
  • “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”
  • “Vermiglio”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

  • Colin Farrell, “The Penguin” — Winner
  • Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer”
  • Kevin Kline, “Disclaimer”
  • Cooper Koch, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
  • Ewan McGregor, “A Gentleman in Moscow”
  • Andrew Scott, “Ripley”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

  • Jodie Foster, “True Detective: Night Country” — Winner
  • Cate Blanchett, “Disclaimer”
  • Cristin Milioti, “The Penguin”
  • Sofia Vergara, “Griselda”
  • Naomi Watts, “Feud: Capote vs. The swans”
  • Kate Winslet, “The Regime”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

  • Demi Moore, “The Substance” — Winner
  • Amy Adams, “Nightbitch”
  • Cynthia Erivo, “Wicked”
  • Karla Sofía Gascón, “Emilia Pérez”
  • Zendaya, “Challengers”
  • Mikey Madison, “Anora”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

  • Sebastian Stan, “A Different Man” — Winner
  • Jesse Eisenberg, “A Real Pain”
  • Hugh Grant, “Heretic”
  • Gabriel LaBelle, “Saturday Night”
  • Jesse Plemons, “Kinds of Kindness”
  • Glen Powell, “Hit Man”

Best Motion Picture — Animated

  • “Flow” — Winner
  • “Inside Out 2”
  • “Memoir of a Snail”
  • “Moana 2”
  • “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
  • “The Wild Robot”

Best Director — Motion Picture

  • Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist” — Winner
  • Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez”
  • Sean Baker, “Anora”
  • Edward Berger, “Conclave”
  • Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”
  • Payal Kapadia, “All We Imagine as Light”

Best Original Score — Motion Picture

  • Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, “Challengers” — Winner
  • Volker Bertelmann, “Conclave”
  • Daniel Blumberg, “The Brutalist”
  • Kris Bowers, “The Wild Robot”
  • Clément Ducol, Camille, “Emilia Pérez”
  • Hans Zimmer, “Dune: Part Two”

Best Original Song — Motion Picture

  • “El Mal,” by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard (from “Emilia Pérez”) — Winner
  • “Beautiful That Way,” by Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li and Andrew Wyatt (from “The Last Showgirl”)
  • “Compress/Repress,” by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross & Luca Guadagnino (from “Challengers”)
  • “Forbidden Road,” by Robbie Williams, Freddy Wexler & Sacha Skarbek (“Better Man”)
  • “Kiss The Sky,” by Delacey, Jordan Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Maren Morris, Michael Pollack & Ali Tamposi (from “The Wild Robot”)
  • “Mi Camino,” by Clément Ducol and Camille (from “Emilia Pérez”)

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement

  • “Wicked” — Winner
  • “Alien: Romulus”
  • “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”
  • “Deadpool & Wolverine”
  • “Gladiator II”
  • “Inside Out 2”
  • “Twisters”
  • “The Wild Robot”

Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

  • “Baby Reindeer” — Winner
  • “Disclaimer”
  • “Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story”
  • “The Penguin”
  • “Ripley”
  • “True Detective: Night Country”

Best Television Series — Comedy Or Musical

  • “Hacks” — Winner
  • “Abbott Elementary”
  • “The Bear”
  • “The Gentlemen”
  • “Nobody Wants This”
  • “Only Murders in the Building”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Drama

  • Anna Sawai, “Shōgun” — Winner
  • Kathy Bates, “Matlock”
  • Emma D’Arcy, “House of the Dragon”
  • Maya Erskine, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”
  • Keira Knightley, “Black Doves”
  • Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”

Best Television Series — Drama

  • “Shōgun” — Winner
  • “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”
  • “The Diplomat”
  • “Squid Game”
  • “Slow Horses”
  • “The Day of the Jackal”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama

  • Fernanda Torres, “I’m Still Here” — Winner
  • Pamela Anderson, “The Last Showgirl”
  • Angelina Jolie, “Maria”
  • Nicole Kidman, “Babygirl”
  • Tilda Swinton, “The Room Next Door”
  • Kate Winslet, “Lee”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama

  • Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist” — Winner
  • Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”
  • Daniel Craig, “Queer”
  • Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”
  • Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”
  • Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice”

Best Motion Picture — Drama

  • “The Brutalist” — Winner
  • “A Complete Unknown”
  • “Conclave”
  • “Dune: Part Two”
  • “Nickel Boys”
  • “September 5”

Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

  • “Emilia Pérez” — Winner
  • “Anora”
  • “Challengers”
  • “A Real Pain”
  • “The Substance”
  • “Wicked”

HBO Max Movie Review: Juror #2


The new HBO Max movie “Juror #2” is about all that is wrong with the legal system in this country. People are often convicted for all the wrong reasons – including expediency due to the fact that once police investigators think they have found the right person, there is only so much money and time to investigate any situation thoroughly enough. For this one reason alone, way too many people – especially poor people are sent to jail or put on death row, even though they did nothing wrong.

Juror #2 is directed by Clint Eastwood, who is still directing movies at age 94, which according to records makes him the second oldest person to direct a film.

The screenplay for Juror #2 is a very good one about a man having an argument in a bar with his girlfriend during a rainy night and the girlfriend refuses a drive home with her boyfriend and is later found dead after falling off of a cliff. Several incorrect assumptions are made by the police and several witnesses and the boyfriend is arrested for murder. Later when the jury is selected, one of the jurors has significant knowledge of what happened to the woman that night.

Juror #2 has an excellent cast, including Nicholas Hoult as Justin Kemp (juror #2), Toni Collette as Faith Killebrew, the prosecuting attorney, Chris Messina as Eric Resnick the defense attorney, and J.K. Simmons who is excellent as a member of the jury, and a former police officer, who through some simple phone calls and research easily demonstrates major flaws in the police investigations of this alleged crime.

There are excellent courtroom scenes in this story, and along the way the expected ongoing conflicts that all lawyers face over winning a case at all costs against doing the right thing – to save the life of an innocent person.

Juror #2 is receiving very high 93% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and I agree with these ratings and recommend this movie.