Watched: 02/26/2026
Format: Alamo
Viewing: First
Director: Bart Layton
If the title Crime 101 (2026) seems a little uninspired, what I think I'd say is - it feels like this movie is by someone who has seen and likes the same movies I've seen and liked. And that's... fine. If you don't watch a lot of heist movies, this may feel fresh. It has a sprawling, winding storyline intersecting three compelling characters. And it has an all-star cast that made the movie a real treat.
Chris Hemsworth plays one of the modern takes on the post-Parker, post Le Samourai crooks - a loner with seemingly no life but the crimes they'll commit. No friends, no family. He's stolen millions in expensive jewels. His connection/ fence/ maybe mentor is no less than Nick Nolte. Mark Ruffalo is a cop who is such a rogue *he plays by the rules*. He may be on the LAPD, but he's not just framing people to get his numbers up. Also, his wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh!) is leaving him. Halle Berry is an insurance salesperson (I missed the actual job title) to the uber-wealthy. If you need someone to help you get your Matisse insured, she's your gal. But she's also realizing her place in her company - and it isn't a rocket ride to the top.
This isn't a movie that starts with a heist in mind that we're going to work our way through the plan and execution. Instead - Ruffalo is trying to solve a string of robberies he suspects is committed by one guy, who is secretly Hemsworth. Berry's company was repping one of Hemsworth's victims. And so the divergent paths of these folks begin crossing.
Meanwhile, Barry Keoghan enters the mix as a wannabe thief who does not have a cool, non-violent code.
At its heart, it's a character movie, which is why I expect its done fairly well on Metacritic. And that's the joy in the film, really - seeing movie stars do their work with fairly well developed and defined characters, each in crisis, and how that crisis leads to the last act. From both a technical structure and from a dramatic path, that's good stuff. Some reviewers really gushed about this one, and I can see why. Everyone is doing Grade-A work here. It's a pleasure to see Hemsworth and Berry over a table trading lines and telling each other more than they've said out loud to anyone.
Very clearly Bart Layton who wrote, directed and produced this movie also, like me, likes Heat, Thief, The Driver and a medley of neo-noir heist pictures. But, yeah, this feels oddly formulaic - like I was accurately guessing what was coming a few scenes in advance (or more). I understood the exact function of the romantic interest. A little reverse engineering and I was well aware of Keoghan's function.
SPOILERS
It also doesn't want to be a noir. It wants to be a heist movie with noir *vibes* but give our leads a happy ending, and once you clock that, it's not too hard to see how this will come together.
Also, who just gives loose diamonds as a gift bag gift? It's giving someone very expensive homework and just felt like a plot device.
I think for Jamie the movie dragged, and I get that. I do remember having the passing thought "this is a lot of table setting. Quite a bit, actually" as the first 45 minutes or so unspooled. It is a meal of a film that wants to play in the same category as other epic crime movies and gives it about a 135 minute runtime. And I get it - they want to show us so much. Except when they choose to gloss over some fairly improbable things (what exactly did Ruffalo do at the airport?).
Structurally and storywise, I appreciated Crime 101. The real strength was in the character work from the three leads and bringing in name talent in supporting roles (amazing what you can do when you're not worried about CGI everywhere). I'm just not sure it's actually anything new. The title almost feels like a jab from someone at MGM/ Amazon who'd seen a bunch of heist movies and was like "man, this is like crime movie 101". But, no, it's the actual title of the Don Winslow book it's based on.
Unwanted advice arriving too late
The Maya storyline felt borrowed from way too many other movies and was unmotivated. Fixing it would have been easy - just make her the hooker Hemsworth is with at the film's start. I just don't buy that our office drone is going to keep going out with Captain Redflag. At least the meeting and relationship would have made sense with a hooker - but we don't do that in films after 1997 or so. Hookers are not people in movies in 2026.
Find something else to steal. It's a diamond heist, and without a fence, diamonds are kind of worthless. The average person's inability to move stolen, loose diamonds means even someone with a fence winds up getting a small fraction of the actual worth of stolen diamonds. That $11 million becomes like, 1 million, real fast. And that is not fuck-you money in Los Angeles.
We also needed one or two more beats about Hemsworth's character. Why Maya? What is his magic number for safety?
But, yeah, it was a solid movie. I have been disappointed in a lot of movies of late, and this was not that. I just don't know if this is one I would feel was vital to anyone's film watching.
Congrats to Halle Berry for her 4th consecutive decade of being ridiculously good looking.
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