Crime 101 is a Clever Caper with a Couple Flawed Stones

Crime 101 is a Clever Caper with a Couple Flawed Stones

★ ★ ★

Crime 101 is a witty diamond caper that tells a simple story in a convoluted way. It weaves intrigue with characters so well developed you’d swear you know—or at least know of—someone just like them. What they do may be over-the-top, but they’re grounded in motivations to which audiences can relate. This kind of character chemistry is rarely done so well, even if a couple don’t fully land.

Davis (Chris Hemsworth) is a diamond thief who hijacks a diamond courier carrying a briefcase of decoys and $3 million strapped to his ankle. Davis is careful. He doesn’t leave evidence and he has yet to hurt anyone in his heists.

Monica Barbaro as Maya and Chris Hemsworth as Davis
© 20206 Amazon MGM Studios

Tracking him is Detective Lou (Mark Ruffalo), a man on the verge of a failed marriage. He’s dubbed Davis the 101 Bandit because the robberies all take place near U.S. Route 101. For Lou, finding Davis has become akin to hunting Bigfoot. Tillman (Corey Hawkins), his partner, rolls his eyes when Lou makes crime scene connections to Davis.

We don’t usually get an insurance angle to these films, probably because no one’s figured out how to make it interesting. Writer-director Bart Layton managed to find a way to make it compelling. High-value residential insurance agent Sharon (Halle Berry) is trying to land a large client for her firm to secure the partnership she’s been promised. At 53, she’s facing internal competition from the new insurance rep Madeleine (Crosby Fitzgerald). Sharon’s starting to think the partnership promise might be as empty a promise as her client’s vow to “look over” the proposal.

Halle Berry as Sharon
© 2026 Amazon MGM Studios

Though the characters generally click, the weakest of the bunch is Detective Lou. Though he’s well written and his arc weaves into the story, there’s not much about him that’s compelling. We’ve seen this detective on screen before, and Ruffalo does little to distinguish this from his other cynical, depressed-guy performances.

Similarly, Davis’ love interest Monica ( Monica Barbaro) comes with a rigid set of rules and ideals and all but expects Davis to conform to them. The chemistry is never fully there between them. As such, the romantic stakes—the kind that make a man leave a successful life of crime —don’t add to the story. Davis isn’t a conformer, and I get the sense he’ll eventually find himself alone on a beach. By choice.

Ruffalo’s token caper detective and Barbaro’s reason-to-leave-it-all-behind love interest don’t hurt the film, but they don’t elevate it either. Neither are quite compelling.

Corey Hawkins as Tillman and Mark Ruffalo as Detective Lou
© 2026 Amazon MGM Studios

Tonally, Crime 101 bears resemblance to films like Heat, though it doesn’t quite match its greatness. But a big part of what made Heat so captivating was the showdown between a cop played by Al Pacino and a criminal mastermind played by Robert De Niro. Both played different generations of the same character in The Godfather: Part 2. Heat was the first time the two had ever been together onscreen, and not only did it live up to the hype, it was a great film. While Crime 101 doesn’t live up to such hype, its story is captivating and thrilling.

Despite a couple of flawed characters, Crime 101 manages to be an entertaining caper. Given the choice between this film, Heat and something like The Town, you might pick one of the latter two. While this movie still needs to find a couple of missing diamonds, it still has enough carats to warrant a couple hours in a dark theater.