Gerard Butler in Tiresome Sequel

Imagine the iconic diner sit-down scene between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Michael Mann’s Heat stretched out to feature length and you’ll get some idea of Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.

Admittedly, there’s a terrific action sequence in director-screenwriter Christian Gudegast’s follow-up to his overlong 2018 heist thriller. Unfortunately, the superbly orchestrated car chase/shootout, taking place both in a tunnel and on winding mountain roads, occurs nearly two hours into this equally bloated sequel’s 144-minute running time. Until then, you spend a lot of time watching the characters luxuriate in the European settings via consuming copious amounts of croissants, gelato and tiny cups of coffee.

Indeed, watching Gerard Butler, reprising his role of tough cop “Big Nick” O’Brien, struggle to learn the proper pronunciation of the word “croissant” is one of the more interesting elements of this formulaic if slickly filmed movie in which Nick goes after Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), whose true role as the mastermind of the Federal Reserve heist was the climactic plot twist of the previous film. Since that embarrassment, Big Nick has gone to seed, his career in tatters and his attention to personal grooming leaving much to be desired. His first onscreen appearance finds him attending to his business at a urinal, which says much about the film’s idea of character definition.

But Nick’s old zeal for crime-solving rises to the fore when he hears about a diamond robbery in a Belgium airplane hangar that he’s sure is the work of his old nemesis. He manages to get himself assigned to a French police task force dubbed Pantera for their pursuit of the Panthers, a gang of expert jewelry thieves with whom Donnie has partnered. Traveling to France, Nick quickly manages to be the most blatant fish-out-of-water cop since Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle blustered his way through Marseille in French Connection II.

Meanwhile, Donnie, posing as a diamond dealer, fences the stolen gems at an international diamond center, the gang’s true target, with the aid of the Panthers’ female leader Jovanna (a smoldering Evin Ahmad, providing relief from all the testosterone on display). Unfortunately for Donnie, among the gems is a massive pink diamond belonging to an aged mafia don, “The Octopus” (Adriano Chiaramida), who doesn’t take kindly to the loss and orders his underlings to get the stone back no matter what.

The main gimmick of this installment is that Nick manages to persuade Donnie that he wants to join him on the dark side and take part in the heist. That leads to plenty of buddy scenes, as the two very different men begin to enjoy each other’s company via such moments as having to swim to shore after being unceremoniously pushed off a ship by the threatening mafiosi. Unfortunately, this “weird symbiosis,” as Nick puts it, isn’t nearly as interesting as the filmmaker intends it to be, with the two stars never generating the sufficient “bro” chemistry to keep us engaged for more than two hours.

Gudegast is a stylish filmmaker, demonstrating undeniable flair for staging and editing exciting robbery sequences even if the climactic one, like nearly everything in the film, goes on too long. But most of the film is marked by long stretches of tedium, such as the disco sequence in which Nick gets high on hashish and starts dirty dancing with a receptive Jovanna, much to her former boyfriend’s violent displeasure. Nick naturally shakes it off by enjoying a late-night repast of shawarma with Donnie, one of so many instances of the actors dining in the film that craft services probably wasn’t necessary.

“Isn’t this case closed by now?” wonders one of Nick’s police colleagues early in the proceedings, and viewers may find themselves asking the same thing as the film stretches interminably on. Butler employs his dependable rough-hewn charisma to typically fine effect, even if he’s more enjoyable in the Has Fallen series and such surprisingly fun one-offs as Plane. But Jackson too often seems out of his depth, his character coming across as more passive and reactive than threatening.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera cements its unlikely connection between the two main characters with a twist ending that doesn’t really make any sense but firmly provides the opportunity for the inevitable next installment.