Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (June 8, 2026)
If you ever wanted to see Thor, Storm from X-Men and the Hulk all in the same movie, I bear exciting news! 2026’s Crime 101 brings those three together – or at least the actors, as a crossover Avengers/X-Men movie doesn’t exist yet.
Mike (Chris Hemsworth) leads a cautious life as an elite jewel thief. He attracts the attention of LAPD Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), though his colleagues dismiss his theories.
Mike wants to stage one final major heist and then retire, a job that eventually includes the assistance Sharon Combs (Halle Berry), an insurance broker fed up with the “glass ceiling” at her job. As they plot this endeavor, Lou pursues Mike.
As one watches 101, it becomes tough not to compare it to Michael Mann’s 1995 flick Heat. Does this mean I view 101 as a ripoff of the earlier movie?
No, as they come with plenty of differences. Nonetheless, too many similarities ensue for 101 to lose the inevitable comparisons.
If I ignore the Mann influence, I can better enjoy 101, though I admit it works better on first screening than on second viewing. When I saw it theatrically, I felt it offered a pretty solid thriller.
When taken in again, the flaws poke through more obviously, mainly via the assortment of clichés on display. All our lead characters follow easy archetypes and the tale doesn’t make them stand out as different from what we expect.
I mean, how many “one last big score and then retirement” heist flicks have we gotten over the years? Plenty, and 101 doesn’t deviate from the formula much.
Arguably the film’s biggest misstep comes from the forced romance between Mike and Maya (Monica Barbaro). This starts clumsily with a “meet cute” and then evolves in a manner that seems utterly gratuitous. 101 could lose Maya and be no worse off for it.
Of course, this means that the buttoned-down and isolated Mike starts to make mistakes once he lets emotion enter his life. I get the desire to give Mike an emotional arc but 101 does so in too cliché a manner for this theme to succeed.
Neither Lou nor Sharon seem any better realized, and the movie tosses out Barry Keoghan as a Ormon, a rival who exists as Mike’s opposite. The story comes with enough juice via Lou’s pursuit that it doesn’t need to give Mike another antagonist.
Writer/director Bart Layton stages the film’s action scenes well, so those add spark to the proceedings. Though the actors never really need to break a sweat, they flesh out their underwritten roles in a positive manner.
I just wish 101 veered away from its tendency to embrace thriller clichés. Even with these, it does manage entertainment across its 140 minutes, and as implied, if I’d written this review after I saw the movie theatrically, I’d give it a higher rating.
Alas, this discussion followed my second screening and that one left me less enchanted. Crime 101 remains a professional and moderately engaging thriller that loses points due to a tendency to embrace too many clichés.
