Chris Hemsworth leads an all-star cast in the heist film Crime 101, which releases this Friday. The first reviews of the movie have arrived online, almost all positive, agreeing that it’s worth watching if you’re a fan of the genre. Based on the novella by Don Winslow and directed by Bart Layton (American Animals), Crime 101 features Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Halle Berry, Monica Barbaro, and many other famous faces among its ensemble, but it’s the nods to classic thrillers that will be most familiar.
Here’s what critics are saying about Crime 101:
Crime 101 is an incredibly effective, propulsive film… a breath of fresh air, bringing breakneck stories of this ilk back to the big screen with thoughtful thrills and pop pleasures alike.
— Jay Ledbetter, AwardsWatch
Taken on its own merits, Crime 101 is a sturdy offering for those who miss losing an afternoon at the movies with a reasonably engrossing drama made for adults.
— Jarrod Jones, AV Club
Crime 101 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and it doesn’t have to. It just has to be a good time at the movies. And it is.
— Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm
Overall, it is a highly watchable spectacle.
— Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
There’s enough gas in the tank and competence at the wheel to merit a spin.
— Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
The film is merely adequate, rehashing familiar territory while, admittedly, remaining entertaining.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
Crime 101 feels too contrived and artificial to be convincing. But there’s plenty to appreciate along the way.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
Crime 101 marks another confident step away from his documentary roots… That non-fiction background still shapes his storytelling style in the best way.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
His foray into traditional narrative filmmaking isn’t as audacious, but it does prove that Layton is a natural filmmaker.
— Jay Ledbetter, AwardsWatch
Crime 101 lacks some of the indie energy that made American Animals so exciting and also so strangely divisive in the U.S.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily
Creatively, this film feels like it’s hijacking at least 15 other, better movies, whether Mann’s Heat and Collateral or Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive or Bullitt with Steve McQueen.
— Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
Crime 101… instantly slots itself into the subgenre of heist films, clearly aiming to be molded in the image of Heat.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
It can’t escape the shadow of Heat, the movie it tries so hard to emulate, and I don’t think it wants to.
— Joonatan Itkonen, Region Free
While comparisons to Mann’s Heat may abound, it really has more in common with Thief or Collateral.
— Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
The Chicago-set thriller Thief comes immediately to mind, and Crime 101 is a similar missive from a neon city.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily
The tone is deliberately unhurried and is more than reminiscent of classics such as The Thomas Crown Affair.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
Crime 101’s foundation might be heavily borrowed, but it knows how to act as an ode to the Mann and Soderbergh crime sagas of old, whilst still providing its own slick look and captivating characters to more than warrant its extended runtime.
— Joshua Mbonu, Geek Vibes Nation
When it deviates from what has been seen before, Crime 101 stands on its own two feet.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
The biggest departure is that while Heat is ultimately bleak and tragic in how these men self-destruct, Layton moves towards a story of surprising redemption and growth.
— Matt Goldberg, Commentary Track
What can’t be faked or copied is tension, which Crime 101 has in abundance… There is a patience and vibrancy to the filmmaking that feels fresh.
— Jay Ledbetter, AwardsWatch
There’s a reason some clichés endure… Crime 101 doesn’t aim to rewrite the rules of its time-honored game so much as just sturdily adhere to them.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
The internal conflicts are the most compelling aspects that Layton expands upon from Winslow’s work… These elements help elevate Crime 101.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
Because the script is so busy, actual character development is left to the actors.
— G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
Layton adds many sometimes unnecessarily complex ingredients to the pot, with characters intersecting and allegiances and motivations often contradicting one another.
— Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
The script is passable in its best moments and upsettingly dull in others… The result feels strangely unwieldy.
— Joonatan Itkonen, Region Free
We’re looking at a film that, although it seems to be of America — coming from a rich lineage of US crime films too long to list here — is actually about America.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily
This is a film that touches on a number of important topics, to varying degrees of success, like sexism in the corporate workplace, police corruption, and the lawlessness of the uberwealthy.
— Jay Ledbetter, AwardsWatch
It does contain some pained attempts at subtext. The dialogue occasionally veers from the clipped speech patterns of stoic prose to Say Something Important about How We Live Now™.
— Matt Singer, Screen Crush
If Crime 101 had something to say about Los Angeles, that would have been better.
— William Bibbiani, The Wrap
There isn’t a ton of action, but when there is, it’s a couple of solid L.A. chase sequences that help get the viewer excited about what’s to come.
— Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
Crime 101’s car chases might not measure up to Bullitt, but they’re solid; good enough that the characters name-checking Bullitt onscreen isn’t a total embarrassment.
— Matt Singer, Screen Crush
The action is engrossing… including a well-staged chase scene where Mike drives his classic car after Ormon’s dirt bike, the vehicles swerving in and out of traffic at dangerous, breakneck speeds.
— Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm
Because of its penchant for imitation, it is hard to argue that Crime 101 will be remembered as some sort of action masterpiece, but its competence and thoughtfulness are not familiar to the last fifteen or so years of action cinema.
— Jay Ledbetter, AwardsWatch
The story focuses more on character-driven drama and moral choices than on action.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
One of Hemsworth’s best performances.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Hemsworth delivers one of his most restrained performances to date, playing against type as a quiet, calculating figure whose confidence masks deeper vulnerability.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
Hemsworth doesn’t disappoint… with a vulnerable and troubled performance that is far more interesting than the plot allows.
— Joonatan Itkonen, Region Free
Hemsworth brings the intensity, occasionally tapping into a Winslow-esque charm that is scarce in this adaptation.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
Hemsworth has played this sort of guy before, but he’s quite likable here; I bought his “criminal with a heart of gold” performance and found myself rooting for him.
— Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm
Crime 101 is a potent reminder that he’s an underrated acting talent… Hemsworth has the range to make us believe this hulking, handsome man is fearfully hanging onto a persona because he’s running from a darker past.
— Matt Goldberg, Commentary Track
He’s so good that he makes you believe someone who looks like Chris Hemsworth could be awkward around women.
— Jay Ledbetter, AwardsWatch
Halle Berry delivers some of her best work here in almost a decade.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
It’s Berry who comes out on top in Crime 101… The Oscar winner proves as commanding as ever.
— Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
Halle Berry is exceptional and the standout here.
— Joshua Mbonu, Geek Vibes Nation
Berry is superb and arguably the film’s standout, delivering a layered, career-defining performance.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
Berry gives her best performance in years… But it’s Keoghan, who made clear his fearlessness in Saltburn, who steals the show.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
Keoghan, with dyed-blond hair and minimal dialogue, is the wild card that gives the film its edge.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily
Barbaro fares the best, which is a testament to her talents because Maya is such an underwhelming character in the end.
— Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm
There’s a lot to take in — probably too much, with the myriad subplots stretching the film to a bloated 140 minutes.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
Even when the film feels overlong, the creative team maintains smooth control over the overall pacing.
— Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
Layton’s approach may feel measured for viewers expecting constant action, but the pacing proves rewarding.
— Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
Part of the problem with Crime 101 is that there are so many characters, each with their own moments, the plot frustratingly stops and starts.
— G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
There are times when the filmmaker makes his machinations too obvious, as with the too-cute cross-cutting illustrating how the characters are all caught in the same web.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
The film makes a big miscalculation by giving us a scene that should be the end, only for things to lumber on for another ten unnecessary minutes meant to wrap everything up in a far-too-neat package.
— Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm
Crime 101 opens in theaters on February 13, 2026.
