Den of Thieves is part gritty crime drama/part heist thriller/part straight-up action film, set in downtown Los Angeles. As the film opens, an empty armored truck is stolen at gunpoint outside a donut shop, leaving one of the thieves, the truck’s drivers, and several other officers dead. L.A. Sheriff’s Department detective Nick O’Brien (Gerard Butler) and his elite major crimes unit is called in to investigate. Nick is a tough, never-plays-by-the-rules kind of guy whose personal life is currently in shambles—his wife just took the children and left him after discovering he was cheating on her.

Nick throws himself into the case and it isn’t long before he has a suspect. Nick believes those responsible are the same crew that have been robbing banks all over the area—a band of ex-military soldiers led by Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber), who was recently released on parole after serving 8 months in prison. However, Nick doesn’t know what Merrimen plans to do with his newly-acquired armored truck. Nick begins a game of psychological warfare, starting with questioning Merrimen’s newest recruit, Donnie (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.), trying to make it look like he’s cooperating with the cops, in order to cause division and doubt in this band of thieves. It quickly becomes a game of cat-and-mouse between Nick and Merrimen, each knowing that the other is plotting against him. In the meantime, Merrimen plans an elaborate, seemingly impossible heist of the Federal Reserve Bank.

The film follows both the outlaws and the Regulators as we see each side plotting and executing their plans. Nick and his band of Regulators are trying to figure out what the thieves are up to, and hope to outwit these outlaws through interrogation and psychological mind games. The Regulators are not your typical cops—these guys dress, look and act more like a gang than your typical uniformed officers. However, the thieves are ex-military and don’t scare easily. They work like a well-tuned unit, and always seem to be a few steps ahead of Nick. At the same time, the film also gives viewers the perspective of the outlaws as they meticulously plan and execute their bank heist. They seem to have taken every precaution, but Nick can be an unpredictable force of nature, and if anyone has the tenacity and ability to disrupt their plans, it’s him.

I found the opening act of the film to be a bit slow. It jumps around to various Los Angeles locations and introduces a lot of characters. Unless you are familiar with the layout of the area, the on-screen notes of the various locations don’t really mean much. For my first viewing of the film, I watched the unrated cut, and later watched the theatrical cut while listening to the audio commentary. The latter had much better pacing and fixed some of the issues I had—a lot of those extra 8 minutes in the unrated cut seemed to be a part of the bloated first act of the film. After the first act, the film really kicks into gear and becomes an exciting heist thriller and action film. The planning and execution of the heist is really exciting and tense to watch. I found myself actually rooting for the outlaws as their plan was quite impressive. And the final act of the film contains a really intense firefight in the streets of Los Angeles, which leads to a really unexpected but satisfying ending. While I started off mediocre on the film, I was certainly all-in by the end.

Universal’s Blu-ray presentation is solid. The picture looks clean and detailed, both in the darker scenes like the armored car heist that opens the film, as well as brighter outdoor scenes like the amazing street shootout in the final act. The audio track is also quite impressive. Dialogue is clear, and during the various shootout scenes, the sound of bullets can be heard in every direction.

The Blu-ray comes packed in a standard HD keepcase with a cardboard slipcover. The disc contains a nice assortment of bonus features, including an alternate ending, 11 deleted/extended scenes, 3 promotional/behind-the-scenes featurettes, and an audio commentary with the writer/director and producer. The release also includes an iTunes digital HD copy of the theatrical cut of the film (the digital copy is not Movies Anywhere compatible).

What’s Included:

Film: (2:28:49 Unrated, 2:20:28 Theatrical)

Blu-ray:

• 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

DVD:

• 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Digital HD:

• Digital HD copy of the Theatrical version of the film, redeemable via iTunes
  (Not Compatible with Movies Anywhere)

Extras:
Available on both the Blu-ray and the DVD.

• Alternate Ending (4:51)
  Overall a similar result, but far less exciting, surprising, and Keyser Söze-ish than the current ending.
• Alpha Males (2:06)
  In this promotional featurette, stars O’Shea Jackson Jr. (“Donnie”), Gerard Butler (“Big Nick), Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson (“Enson”), and Pablo Schreiber (“Merrimen”) describe their characters, and talk about the premise of the film and how the lines between good and bad are blurred.
• Into the Den (2:06)
  In this promotional featurette, director Christian Gudegast and stars Gerard Butler, Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, Pablo Schreiber and O’Shea Jackson Jr. talk about the two groups—the regulators and the outlaws—that ultimately clash at the end of the film.
• Alameda Corridor (3:13)
  In this promotional featurette, go behind the scenes with director Christian Gudegast and stars Gerard Butler, Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, Pablo Schreiber and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as they train for and shoot the epic shootout in a traffic jam on the streets of Los Angeles.
• Outtakes (23:22)
  Collection of 11 deleted/extended scenes. Play All or select from “Nick Comes Home”, “Donnie at the Hotel”, “Donnie Arrives at Enson’s House”, “Nick and the Boys in the Hall”, “Enson in the Office”, “Enson & Maloa”, “Merrimen Boys Get Ready”, “Enson & Donnie in the Van”, “Nick & Deb at the Market”, “Nick & Deb at the Beach”, and “Donnie at the Salvage Yard”.
• Commentary with Director Christian Gudegast and Producer Tucker Tooley (2:20:28)
  The commentary is only offered on the theatrical cut of the film. Writer/director Christian Gudegast and producer Tucker Tooley provide an overall interesting commentary, though their energy can be a little low at times. The men talk in great detail about how and where the various scenes were shot, the stunts done by the actors, the inspiration for the characters, the film’s score, and the research they did on the federal reserve and police work. (They are constantly assuring listeners of how realistic the portrayals are.) The guys also mention some of the things that are in the extended cut or that were changed from the original script or never shot, and talk about the training the cast went through and how the Regulators and outlaws each had different regimens. Overall, the commentary provides a lot of behind-the-scenes information and production anecdotes that should be interesting to fans of the film.
• Den of Thieves Theatrical Cut (2:20:28)
  For me, this was the preferred cut of the film.
• Theatrical Trailer #1 (2:32)
• Theatrical Trailer #2 (2:22)

Final Thoughts:

Den of Thieves starts off a bit slow, but becomes an exciting and tense heist/action film that comes to an unexpected but really satisfying conclusion. Gerard Butler and Pablo Schreiber deliver strong performances as they each lead a crew of men on opposite sides of a physiological cat-and-mouse game. Universal’s Blu-ray release delivers strong picture and sound, and contains a nice assortment of bonus material, including two cuts of the film. This release comes recommended.