The Secret “Movie Of The Year”: Den Of Thieves: Pantera

There were plenty of blockbuster movies in 2025 that were released such as Marvel's Fantastic Four & Thunderbolts, DC Comics’ Superman, F1, Ballerina & Sinners, while good movies like The Running Man & Mickey 17 served as great films to watch as well. With all those great movies being released this year, what if you were told that the best movie of 2025 was actually Den Of Thieves: Pantera produced by 50 Cent & Gerard Butler; also starring Butler & O'shea Jackson Jr.

That's right. Den Of Thieves: Pantera serves as an action-packed suspense/thriller & traditional cops vs robbers/good guys vs bad buys classic that movie fans love to see and have enjoyed for years, but it also takes you for a ride in a new plot twist you wouldn't expect.

The good guy actually joins the bad guys and even lets them go free in the end.

While giving you great car chasing and racing/stunt scenes you’d see in a Fast & Furious film, but with criminal vs cops gun actions scenes similar to a Bad Boys movie, Den Of Thieves sets the perfect heist you wouldn’t get in a Set It Off film, or any other past or present movie made in that genre, making it the best movie of 2025

Gerard Butler gives a great performance as usual upping the ante, playing Big Nick again for a second time.

Nick O’Brien is an asshole, dirty cop who gets divorced by his wife for cheating. Although he seems to be suffering tremendously from his divorce, what really keeps him up at night is the fact that he let Donnie Wilson (played by O’shea Jackson Jr.) get away from him back in LA and decides to track him down and go after him once he finds out that Donnie is pulling more heist jobs out of the country in Nice, France.

Although he has played in some great films such as Straight Outta Compton, Cocaine Bear, Just Mercy and Godzilla: King Of Monsters, O’Shea’s performance as Donnie is his most impressive role as of yet. Donnie has to speak multiple languages with different accents and dialect, he is now IT capable and able to crack into cyber security systems and break into high tech facilities, all while maintaining the authenticity of his natural and true criminal identity.

Nick tracks Donnie down in Nice, breaks into his condo that he is staying in and tricks him into working with him, swearing not to arrest him under the guise that he is fired as a cop and is broke and in desperate need of money. However, Nick has all intentions of taking Donnie down when it’s all over with.

Together, they go on a bromance lived journey robbing the most secured diamond exchange in all of the world, while managing to develop a friendship and bond throughout the entirety of the film.

Things get dangerous as they find out they robbed a very powerful mafia boss and have to get back what they stole in order to stay alive. This builds the bond that makes Nick feel guilty of arresting Donnie in the end and instead decides to break him out of jail and give him a second chance at life on the run in an unknown location, away from authorities.

Den Of Thieves sets itself apart from some of the classic heist movies such as Takers, The Town, and many others from the past because while most films focus on robbing banks and taking lots of money, this movie focuses on robbing diamond exchanges for huge amounts of diamonds worth more than what most banks give away in bank robberies.

The difficulty of degree the thieves experience in this movie is next level and the plot gives a different experience most cops don’t face, putting it in classes with movies like The Inside Man and Swordfish.

Den Of Thieves: Pantera is the best movie of the year because unlike some of the big blockbuster movies, it didn’t have a huge budget, yet still delivered a very impactful performance, Gerard Butler always seems to take his character’s development to the next level and O’Shea Jackson really delivered his most impressive performance as an actor since Straight Outta Compton.

This film has everything you need to be entertained from action, to fast cars and a love story, to very deep plot twists and drama, to a very well executed ending that fans would not expect; much like it did in the first movie.

This film is a must see and it definitely leaves the audience pleased at the end and craving to see another one.

Leave your thoughts and opinions about Den Of Thieves in the comments section below and tell us if you will be watching the third installment when it’s released.

Watch the trailer for Den Of Thieves: Pantera in the link below if you’ve never seen it before & check it out on Netflix.