'Wicked' PVOD Haul, 'Carry-On' Netflix Records, 'Den of Thieves 2' and 'The Prosecutor' Reviews
Jason Statham's latest gets a generic trailer to accompany its generic title, while the latest 'Companion' trailer straddles the line between spoilers and enticement.
In tonight’s action-packed, trip-wire intense newsletter…
Den of Thieves 2 and The Prosecutor are dramas disguised as action thrillers. (free)
Jason Statham’s A Working Man gets a generic trailer that lacks… buzz.
Wicked Part One got an extra week of theatrical exclusivity and still shattered Comcast’s Premium EST and Premium VOD revenue records.
The second Companion trailer reveals quite a few of its cards.
Carry-On has become one of Netflix’s most-watched original features ever.
Den of Thieves 2 and The Prosecutor are dramas disguised as actioners.
I generally advise against opening an indie or smaller-scale genre flick on the same weekend a major like-minded genre flick opens wide. The obvious example is Bong Joon-ho’s The Host debuting in limited release on the same weekend where Zack Snyder’s game-changing 300 nabbed a sky-high $70 million domestic debut in early March of 2007. The Host did fine globally, but I’d imagine the Magnolia release would have had more takers among audiences willing to drive out of the way if there wasn’t a concurrent big-dela genre flick playing at a theater near them.
That’s the long-winded way of saying that if I were Well Go USA, I might not have opened Donnie Yen’s The Prosecutor on the same weekend as Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. However, since they are both opening in some form of theatrical release tonight, I will note that they share some curious similarities. First, while neither film is “excellent,” both are solid, handsomely staged and engrossingly performed potboilers that more or less belong in the “action movie” category.
The Prosecutor, headlined by and directed by Donnie Yen, concerns a decorated cop who decides to join the “order” half of Hon Kong’s “law & order.” It feels like a logical progression for a 61-year-old who, despite seemingly having aged about 32 minutes in the 32 years since Iron Monkey, can’t be expected to do his onscreen martial arts magic forever. It has only enough action to justify the pitch, but it’s not (nor is it trying to be) Raging Fire.
While the film has its share of action and violence, including a terrific climactic skirmish, the details I won’t reveal, it is far more concerned with giving Yen the chance to be… (said as obnoxiously as possible) *an actor*. It is primarily a drama about the perils of a criminal justice system that is more concerned with procedure than justice. Despite presumptions that it would be a kind of “He’s a lawyer, but he’ll kick the ass of any criminal scum who escapes justice in his courtroom” thriller, it’s…the exact opposite of that.
The core dilemma, courtesy of Edmond Wong’s screenplay, isn’t about the moral and social outrage of bad guys walking free but rather about the moral and social outrage of innocent (and low-income) people caught up in the wheels of a prosecutorial assembly line. It’s a compelling enough “War on drugs, but at what cost?” melodrama, although I won’t pretend to know how transgressive its “The whole system is out of order!” messaging is for mainstream Hong Kong cinema. Yen is happy to play in what often feels like an old-school 1990s star vehicle.
Christian Gudegast’s Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is an even more surprising concoction. The original Den of Thieves was essentially positioned as Heat Jr., with Gerard Butler dialing up the scuzziness to 11. However, opening act bloodshed aside, the picture was more concerned with old-fashioned heist caper tropes. Even the climactic action setpieces were more about tension than carnage. With the $80 million-grossing original developing a post-theatrical cult following positioning “Big Nick” and Donnie Wilson as marquee characters, the sequel goes even further in the “stealth over slaughter” direction.
Den of Thieves 2 qualifies as a rare sequel that’s aggressively less dark and less grim than its predecessor. Set in sun-drenched Europe over back-alley Los Angles, the film offers a novel turn in having the loose cannon cop deciding to change sides and throw his lot in with the master thief who got away the last time. Neither party wants a body count, so what follows is a lively and almost peppy heist dramedy where Nick finds himself healthier and happier while bonding with Donnie on the other side of the law.
How the big score plays out, I will not reveal, only to note that much of the second half involves an extended sequence of expertly crafted, whispery tension. We eventually get “action” and “violence” through at least one dynamite set piece. However, this incredibly patient picture trusts the audience to enjoy the journey, regardless of where the destination leads. It’s as overlong as its predecessor, but Gudegast again shows that he is very good at directing these movies on a studio scale if only studios offered more such opportunities.
Neither The Prosecutor nor Den of Thieves 2 is terribly subversive, and neither picture aims to be. Yet, I was intrigued by how both films offer a skewed observational examination of the soul-rotting consequences of an over-policed populace for those being policed and those doing the policing. Moreover, both films are sold as slam-bang action thrillers while being closer to dramas or character studies. Or maybe we’re so used to nonstop spectacle that an old-school action flick — think Bullitt — now feels like a character study or social issues drama.