What are the early reactions to Crime 101? A lot of comparisons to Michael Mann’s Heat
Crime 101
Crime 101‘s screenplay had already been buzzing around Hollywood as a great crime story before a frame was even shot. The film was penned by Barry Layton and Peter Straughan, with Layton also serving as director. Layton’s most recent film was 2018’s American Animals, while Straughan earned major accolades for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Conclave, the latter of which earned him the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Chris Hemsworth stars in the film with Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte, Tate Donovan, Monica Barbaro, and Corey Hawkins.
What are people saying about it?
While the script was buzzing, after the trailer was released, the film started drawing a lot of comparisons to Michael Mann’s Heat. And the movie is now having advanced screenings, so what’s the early word on it? Our Jason St. Germain was at the premiere and posted on our social media, “#Crime101 is the first GREAT film of 2026. @AmazonMGMStudio was smart by releasing this into theaters and not to streaming. STACKED cast. The film is suspenseful throughout with a VERY satisfying ending. You NEED to see @Crime101Movie on February 13”
For the rest, we go to Letterboxd. A user named moviemattk posted his reaction,
“It’s easy to compare this to Michael Mann’s 1995 film Heat, as Crime 101 is another cat-and-mouse thriller between an obsessed detective and a calculating criminal. It sprinkles in enough changes to be its own thing, but still follows the formula a little too closely. I can’t say much due to the review embargo, but there is elements of sauce here!
Also, Barry Keoghan really has a lock on playing the sniveling little freak!”
Another user named Jamie rated Crime 101 4 stars and said,
“I was very pleasantly surprised by this because I didn’t think the trailers were all that engaging but the film delivered. This is very much Heat meets Drive but with director and writer Bart Layton’s spin on the crime genre providing pulse pounding action sequences with a delicate story to boot. The cast are STACKED with Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbro and Nick Nolte giving very good performances but the core of the narrative centres around Hemsworth and Ruffalo having a game of cat and mouse with each other. While the two leads were fantastic I thought that Halle didn’t really add anything of substance or importance to the narrative and was heavily underwritten, if you cut her out of the film you wouldn’t lose anything. Score and cinematography really elevated the tension with such beautiful vistas of LA at night.
This was a fun throwback to those high octane 90s and 2000s thrillers that we rarely see anymore and I commend Layton for reviving this type of film back on the big screen. Flawed but very well done.”
A user named Jordan gave the movie 3 1/2 stars, but thought it treaded just a little too close to Heat,
“A solid slick crime thriller that I for the most part enjoyed. Nice color grading and full of movie stars that just do their thing. I guess my biggest gripe with the film is that it is a tad cliche. I get it’s heavily inspired by Heat but at times borders on knockoff. Also it’s just a little loose and a tad unfocused in its plotting. The Halle Berry stuff is so disconnected, you could cut it all and nothing would change. I enjoyed her stuff but the story as a whole just needed to be tighter. Still, lots of cool sequences. I liked at the start when it seemed like Chris Hemsworth was an antisocial weirdo and wish they leaned more into it. That’s just me though. Maybe this won’t stay with me by the end of the year but for tonight, I was entertained.”
A user with the amusing name, Dave Decayed, would also give the movie 4 stars and say,
“A super slick LA heist movie that never lets up from the dizzying opening. I’m sure some people will dismiss it because maybe it doesn’t reach the towering heights of ‘Heat‘, but it’s a solidly crafted thriller with great performances: Halle Berry is fantastic – Hollywood you did this woman wrong after her Oscar win!! Bart Layton signed my American Animals poster so I’m flying high”
A user named Ian would rate the movie with 3 stars, but his review leaned on some disappointment,
“This has a lot of interesting ideas and a lot of storylines that I felt were going to make for an exciting and engaging crime film. Unfortunately, by time the credits rolled the different aspects of the film that I thought had an interesting concept to them didn’t develop fully. For example, I really thought the whole Chris Hemsworth awkward weird guy thing was gonna take hold of the film, but by the middle of the film they sorta left it. It initially made for a few funny but intriguing moments, but that along side some other just didn’t totally hit it for me.
I was really excited to see what the film could offer because I love a good stylish crime film and while the direction and vibes were certainly there, the thin story and rather sporadic splicing of characters didn’t make for an engaging two and a half hour flick. But yeah, early screening, was free, and I got popcorn and an icee, you’ll never here a complaint from me as long as the film didn’t make me wanna die, and Crime 101 wasn’t that bad. Simply mediocre at best and will probably be forgotten by the summer.”
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