Crime 101 Review

Crime 101 Review

Crime 101 is the latest crime heist film starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, and so many other familiar faces. This is one that I was very excited for based on the trailers, the premise, and the cast. How good is this movie? Let’s talk about it!

The Good

I’ll just right to the chase, Crime 101 is my favorite 2026 movie that I’ve seen so far. This film is just a blast from beginning to end. It’s a crime thriller that has all of the police investigations, maneuvers, chases, romance, and more that you want from a movie like this. It’s a big slick mid-budget crime thriller that feels like a film that we don’t get a lot of these days. In interviews, Chris Hemsworth described this film as a throw back to the heist films from decades past. It was refreshing to get a movie like this, a movie that you don’t realize that you’re missing until you watch it. It’s a film that has this ensemble cast with so many familiar faces and all of their stories all merge together into one and throughout the film you see how they come together leading into the finale. The film has this coolness of Ocean’s 11 (2001) mixed with the story telling style (in a sense) of Love Actually but it also has this action side to it. As a film that I was very much looking forward to going into 2026, it delivered everything I wanted it to. 

Part of the reason why the film is able to work so well is that you have this star studded cast filled with actors that you love. While it is an ensemble cast, the lead of the film is Chris Hemsworth. He’s a thief that isn’t quite as bad as you might to think he is. He has very specific motives and techniques to the way he does things that make him this unique thief that also makes it hard for the police to catch him. This is probably one of his better and more subtle performances. Because there’s all of these mannerisms that he has with things that have to be organized in such a specific fashion and he’s able to do all of that so well. You buy him as this very conflicted character that’s of course on the wrong side of the law but is still a good person. I wish he’ll do more roles like this, roles that are a bit more subtle. It’s of course fun to see Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo on screen together for all of the obvious reasons. Ruffalo is a great actor that’s great in supporting roles like this and he’s another conflicted character that has a heart of gold. Halle Berry is another fun addition to this film, her and Hemsworth have a great chemistry with each other. The fun standout here is Barry Keoghan has this rival to Hemsworth’s character. He’s playing this total psychotic thief that’s the opposite to all of Hemsworth’s character’s methods that provides for some very fun and chaotic scenes. 

Something that really surprised me about the film was the amount of heart that it has. Most of the heart comes from Chris Hemsworth’s character and his arc in the film. As the film goes along and the more he interacts with Monica Barbaro’s character the more you care about him and understand the way that he is. I went into the film expecting a fun time with actors I enjoy but I was really surprised with the amount of heart that’s in the film. The comparison I’m about to make is really weird but Hemsworth’s arc in the film reminded me of Matt Damon’s arc in Good Will Hunting. They’re of course very different movies, Good Will Hunting is the better movie. But the type of relationship between Hemsworth and Barbaro has some similarities that I thought were interesting. There’s something relatable about all of the main characters, including Ruffalo and Berry. They’re able to be characters that you root for and you want to see succeed because there’s a lot of time spent with the characters. 

As a director, Bart Layton does a great job with the film. He does a number of things that are really cool and make this film stand out. First up, when the film has action scenes which are primarily car chases they’re very exciting and thrilling. From top to bottom every car chase is exciting and you know what’s happening. The way it’s shot it feels like you’re in the middle of the car chase with these characters and doing all of these crazy turns with them. There’s this one scene where Barry Keoghan is chasing Halle Berry but Chris Hemsworth is chasing both of them and it’s done so well. But even when it’s not doing the big car chases and it’s meant to be doing the thrills, the way it’s put together is so thrilling and feels like a classic old school crime thriller that keeps you engaged during all of these different sequences. Second, the way the film is edited is very cool. I’m not normally somebody who comments on the editing but I thought it was really well done here. What’s cool about the editing is that it changes depending on who is on screen. Barry Keoghan’s character is designed to be very psychotic and crazy and whenever he’s doing crazy stuff the editing changes to match the frantic energy of his character. I haven’t seen anything like that before, it’s so creative and it creates images that stick in your head. It’s all of these smaller details that takes what could’ve been this mid-budget generic crime thriller into this stunning crime thriller. 

Finally, the film was able to keep me guessing from beginning to end as to where the film was going. There were multiple points in the film where I went “ok, this is where the film is heading”, and then it’ll do something that’ll change it up. It’s not going in the direction that you think it’s going. Up until the end and when the film’s plot lines started to converge I really didn’t know where the film was going. There’s one big twist in the third act that’s a pretty cool twist and it uses the audience and characters’ knowledge of each other against you in a way that’s really clever. Through that big twist it finds a way to build the tension going into the third act so you’re ending the film on this high note. I really like that about the film where they were able to write a script that’s smarter than the audience. 

The Bad

The big thing here is that the film is a bit too long. The film is 2 hours and 19 minutes long and I felt like the film could’ve been 5-10 minutes shorter. I don’t really know what you could’ve cut from the film. At first I was thinking you could cut the Monica Barbaro sub-plot shorter but you realize that it’s actually a very important plot line to help with Chris Hemsworth’s character. I felt like the entire film could’ve been trimmed by 5-10 minutes, and fix some pacing issues here and there and have a tighter film. To be clear, I’m very positive about this film. But I think the film could’ve been taken to that next step had the film been shorter. There’s some dialogue exchange between Ruffalo and his partner that I don’t think needed to be there. There’s just a few moments here and there that could’ve been trimmed or cut out of the film completely. 

Also, I don’t mean to pick on the guy but Nick Nolte’s acting in the film isn’t the best. The guy is 85 years old, so of course he’s not going to have great acting chops. How many 85 year old actors are turning in great performances? Not very many. But in the context of the film, he’s not a great job. There’s a few moments in which his character needs to shout at Chris Hemsworth and get angry and it wasn’t believable at all. His character is supposed to be this scary crime boss in LA, and Nolte isn’t giving that energy off really at all. Considering they got an actor who’s been in a lot of iconic films over the years, he’s not really given much to do. He has like two scenes in the entire movie. I found it to be a very weird casting decision and performance in general. 

Final Thoughts: As I’ve said multiple times, Crime 101 was one of my most anticipated movies of 2026. This was a really good time at the movies. It’s a classic crime thriller with a star studded cast of actors that I enjoy seeing on the big screen. It’s thrilling and exciting, and able to keep you guessing with twists and turns from beginning to end. If you’re looking for a solid entertaining slick thriller with great actors. 

The Score: 8.7/10 (B+)