Gerard Butler's latest theatrical outing under writer/director Dean Devlin (Independence Day) for Geostorm is not off to a great start. Sure, the film has taken in over $66 million worldwide in its first week, but it might end up as a $100 million loss for the Warner Bros. / Skydance partnership. Butler, however, is moving ahead with his next questionable career choice: Den of Thieves.

On the surface, the premise of this action-thriller from writer/director Christian Gudegast (London Has Fallen) is decent: Aiming to be a modern version of the classic Michael Mann film Heat, this heist / shoot-em-up pits the corrupt LA County Sheriff's Department against a team of elite bank robbers. And honestly, the first trailer for the film isn't that bad, it's just that the film's premise overreaches its available resources. The cast has a decent amount of talent assembled and they appear to be all-in on the goings on of the cops 'n' crooks caper, it's just nowhere near the level of Al Pacino vs Robert De Niro in their prime. If STX Entertainment lowers their expectations a bit, the film's audience might just find itself watching an entertaining action picture.

Also starring Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr., 50 Cent, Maurice Compte, and Sonya Balmores, Den of Thieves opens on January 19th.

Check out the first trailer for Den of Thieves below:

So what do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

Here's the official synopsis followed by the film's first images:

A Los Angeles crime saga in the vein of "Heat", DEN OF THIEVES follows the intersecting and often personally connected lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank of downtown Los Angeles.