Writer/Director Christian Gudegast's Den Of Thieves Heads Home On Apr. 24 From Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced this past week that the STX Entertainment’s bank-heist thriller, Den of Thieves, will be heading home on Apr. 24 with DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions.

The ARR comes in at 95 days and domestic ticket sales were a solid $43.4 million.

Writer/director Christian Gudegast, who is making his directing debut here, has been something of a “script doctor” for a number of years in “Hollywood,” and does not usually get credit for his contributions.   That said, with Den of Thieves he clearly knows how to deliver a heist film … Michael Mann’s Heat, William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A. and Spike Lee’s Inside Man immediately come to mind as the standard for such films in this genre.   

Oh sure, you can dig back further into the film vaults and come up with the likes of director John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle and Kubrick’s The Killing, but with just this handful of examples you sort of get the idea of where Den of Thieves lives. 

It’s not just an A to B to C action film, it’s complicated, there is misdirection and backstory character development — although Gerard Butler’s character’s dysfunctional family life seemed a little much.   There’s a terrific twist at the end and each of the main characters — both good and bad — are deeply flawed and never, ever one-dimensional.   

So if you loved Heat, Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects (that’s another one) and To Live and Die in L.A., then Den of Thieves is a must-have addition to your library of “heist” films come Apr. 24.

As to bonus nuggets, Den of Thieves arrives with commentary from director/writer/producer Christian Gudegast (London has Fallen, A Man Apart), who is joined by producer Tucker Tooley (The Space Between Us, We’re the Millers, A Man Apart, etc.), an alternate ending, outtakes, and a trio of production featurettes — “Alpha Males,” “Into the Den” and “Alameda Corridor.”