CRIME 101 (2026)

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, Halle Berry, Tate Donovan, Devon Bostick, Payman Maadi, Babak Tafti, Deborah Hedwall, Paul Adelstein, Drew Powell, Matthew Del Negro, John Douglas, Payam Banifaz, Crosby Fitzgerald, Patrick Mulvey and Hossein Mardani.

Written by Bart Layton.

Directed by Bart Layton.

Distributed by Amazon MGM Studios. 140 minutes. Rated R.

With a kind of cheesy title like Crime 101 (I get it, it’s like a class on crime), it’s rather shocking how good an old-fashioned heist picture this turns out to be. Full of film noir atmosphere and some of the best car chases since Bullitt, The French Connection and The Rockford Files, this movie takes what could be a pretty underwhelming potboiler and turns in one of the better crime action/dramas of the year. And it’s a smart, adult, character-driven story, not just a chaotic shoot-em-up.

Bonus points because the hero actually has a conscience and rules of conduct, even when he is walking on the wild side. You’ve heard the term “honor amongst thieves?” Yeah, well this guy has, too. In a film world where wanton violence is often cheered, it’s nice to see a criminal who actually has a noble core. His MO is that he leaves no evidence and absolutely no one gets hurt – other than some fat cat insurance companies. That is a world view which I can get behind.

The possessor of that criminal code is a jewelry thief named Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth). Mike is a loner and an intellectual who has come up with – to paraphrase Liam Neeson in Taken – a very specific set of skills.

Things change for Mike when a couple of circumstances happen at once. First of all, when a carefully planned diamond heist goes sideways, Mike leaves a single drop of blood at a crime scene. Therefore, he is feeling a little gun shy on the next scheduled heist that he has been feeling out for months. Mike tells his sleazy fence with the all-too-on-the-nose name of Money (played by a slightly infirm-looking Nick Nolte) that the robbery is too dangerous to take on right now.

At the same time, for the first time in years, maybe ever, Mike meets a woman named Maya (Monica Barbaro) who makes him want to be a better person. Suddenly, he’d rather scout out interesting date venues than plan intricate plans to steal millions of dollars. Therefore, he must decide – how much money is enough for him?

Of course, not all the bad guys in Crime 101 have the moral compass and self-control of Mike. The yang to his yin, the id to his superego, is Ormon (Barry Keoghan), a wild child with frosted hair and no filters, either in speech or extreme violence. Ormon is hired by Money, who wonders if his go-to thief has gone soft and went out to get a wilder one to piggyback on and take over Mike’s master plan.

In the meantime, Crime 101 also lets us in on two parallel plot threads which eventually intersect with Mike’s life. Detective Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo) is investigating the diamond heist and is certain that it is one of a series of similar crimes that have happened locally. His sergeant doesn’t buy that it is a series of crimes, so Lubesnick has to investigate almost on his own when he finds the drop of blood at the crime scene.

Also, Halle Berry plays Sharon, a beautiful forty-something insurance company executive who specializes on high-value clients, Sharon is chosen by her company to hook a new whale, a sleazy billionaire (Tate Donovan) who is planning on marrying a much-too-young-for-him trophy wife and wants to make the wedding a monument to conspicuous consumption, with millions of dollars of jewels to be given out as glorified party favors.

All the plot threads weave together in interesting and surprising ways. And every time you think you know where Crime 101 is going, you’re usually wrong. It’s nice to see a crime film which can actually surprise you, excite you and make you think. That may be Mike Davis’ most impressive heist.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2026 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: February 12, 2026.