Crime 101 review — a high-octane, Mann-adjacent heist driven by Chris Hemsworth
Crime 101 is a lean, stylish heist film that leans heavily on craft and temperament rather than novelty. Directed by Bart Layton and adapted from a Don Winslow novella, the movie places Chris Hemsworth in an unusually controlled mode as Mike, a polished jewel thief whose operations along California’s Route 101 invite the attention of a single-minded cop. The result is a watchable, occasionally thrilling exercise in genre mechanics that wears its influences on its sleeve.
Plot and performances
The plot is straightforward and taut: Mike stages elegant, nonviolent robberies with the precision of a technician while his mentor, the grizzled Money, keeps the machine running. Mark Ruffalo plays Lou, a dishevelled detective with a Columbo-lite persistence who spots the pattern linking the crimes. When a job goes sideways and Mike recruits an insurance adjuster named Sharon for inside help, loyalties and ambition collide. Complications multiply when Money opts to replace Mike with Ormon, a volatile young thief whose flashy, attention-grabbing methods threaten to upend the careful order Mike has cultivated.
Hemsworth is a standout here, trading his usual muscle-centric persona for something more neurotic and finely tuned. He makes the character’s meticulousness feel lived-in rather than put-on, giving the film its moral anchor. Ruffalo brings a weary, humane stubbornness to Lou that provides the emotional counterweight to Mike’s cool. Halle Berry’s Sharon is written as a sidelined professional hungry for dignity; the role gives her a combustible blend of frustration and determination. Barry Keoghan supplies chaos as the motorbike-riding Ormon, and Nick Nolte’s weathered presence as Money underlines the film’s generational through-line.
Direction, style and pacing
Bart Layton leans into a slick visual palette: crisp digital photography, night-lit Los Angeles streets, and a careful eye for the mechanics of the crimes. There are moments when the movie deliberately channels the kinetic calm of classic 1990s heist cinema — long looks, methodical setups, and a focus on the logistics that make the thefts credible. Layton’s pacing alternates between deliberate, moody stretches and sudden bursts of adrenaline, with two car-chase sequences that genuinely deliver the promised rush.
That said, Crime 101 doesn’t always transcend its influences. The film’s thematic gestures — toward economic displacement and the invisible margins of the city — feel perfunctory at times, a backdrop rather than a fully integrated concern. The cast elevates familiar material, but story beats and archetypes rarely surprise. When the film leans into character detail, it rewards; when it opts for broader social commentary, the treatment can seem cursory.
Where it lands
For audiences seeking an adult, well-acted thriller, Crime 101 delivers more often than it disappoints. It’s not aiming for grand tragedy or reinvention; it’s content to be a well-made piece of genre filmmaking with an emphasis on craft. Hemsworth’s disciplined turn and Ruffalo’s affable stubbornness give the movie emotional ballast, while Layton’s direction provides a polished surface that keeps the film moving.
Crime 101 opens on February 13, 2026 (ET) in the U. S. and U. K., and is listed for February 12, 2026 (ET) in Australia. If you’re coming for sleek heist mechanics, confident performances and a LA-nightscape that looks great on screen, this film will satisfy. If you want something that reinvents the form, you may find it stops at the 101-level — familiar, expertly executed, but not revolutionary.
