CRIME 101 (2026) - MGM

Crime 101
MGM

Original Release Date February 13th, 2026
Written by Bart Layton, based on a novella by Don Winslow
Directed by Bart Layton
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Nick Nolte, Monica Barbaro
Language English

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by "Doc" Hunter Bush
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Overview:

Crime 101 comes to 4k from MGM. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Bart Layton, the film is a worthwhile entry into the west coast crime genre. MGM's release of Crime 101 features an excellent video transfer and audio package, but lacks additional features to sweeten the deal.

The Movie Itself: 3.5 stars

I know what you're thinking: if I haven't seen the first 100 Crime movies, will I understand what's going on? Don't worry. Crime 101 doesn't reinvent the wheel or anything when it comes to the west coast crime genre, but it does a very satisfying job of fitting right into that niche. The characters are interesting and given room to breathe, the performances are solid, and the world constructed around everyone is appropriately oppressive. Even the American accents are ...pretty decent.

Crime 101 is adapted from a novella from author Don Winslow, who is known for his crime fiction. The film feels like it's an adaptation, too. These characters feel more nuanced and have more interiority than many similar characters created specifically for film or television (it's a crowded field and you know it). Chris Hemsworth, abandoning both his regular accent and much of his natural gruffness, plays Davis, a crook who is great at planning heists that net him large sums of money, give him an easy escape route and, importantly, harm no one aside from insurance firms. He's smart, and has managed to avoid anyone even realizing his crimes are connected until Lou (Mark Ruffalo), a police detective with an intuition about these things, begins to drill down on them.

Luckily for Davis, Lou's superiors would rather the various robberies get solved whether they arrest the right people or not, and Lou's dedication to doing things the right way hasn't made him a lot of friends on the force. There's also Sharon (the great Halle Berry) who works for exactly the kind of insurance firm that Davis targets. She's great at her job, but has been overlooked for promotion again and again, and now that her history seems to be repeating itself: here comes Davis to woo her and get her to feed him valuable (no pun intended) information.

I love the way Hemsworth plays Davis when Davis is on a grift verses when he's being genuine. For instance, he begins an actual relationship with Maya (Monica Barbaro) and in all of their interactions, you can feel Davis actively TRYING to be as open and relaxed as he APPEARS when he's at similar dinners with Sharon. But in those instances, he's playing someone else, someone for whom money isn't a concern; the person he ultimately wants to become. Davis is much more comfortable being anyone but who he really is inside.

The film has a few other plot lines and threads involving Davis' frequent underworld sponsor (an amazing, growling Nick Nolte) and the rival crook he brings in (a truly despicable Barry Keoghan) which just continues to spiral into more and more unhinged, dangerous action. Ultimately, everything coalesces into a satisfying finale that should [mild SPOILERS] end up as the backdoor pilot for a new Columbo series starring Mark Ruffalo.

The Packaging: 3.5 stars

This is, as we say, perfectly cromulent packaging. It's your standard black 4k case, with a cardboard sleeve. This is the first physical release for Crime 101, so both the sleeve and the interior cover just reproduce the most common poster imagery for the film: a mildly stylized image of L.A.'s 101 freeway seen from the ground. In the negative space created by its shadow are the faces of the main cast: Hemsworth, Berry, Keoghan, and Ruffalo. In the foreground, a man in a ski-mask stands next to a muscle car. Beyond the innate neo-noir appeal of that image, nothing about the packaging is unusually aesthetically unique. It's a by-the-book first run release, but not of poor quality.

The Video: 4 stars

Not to repeat myself too much, but Crime 101 doesn't exactly change the game visually, though it is doing its thing really well. Obviously, all west coast crime films will inevitably owe something to Michael Mann one way or another. Between Thief (1981) and Heat (1995), Mann almost single-handedly locked-in the look of crime in L.A. (though a hat must also be tipped to 1985's To Live and Die in L.A., directed by William Friedkin). Crime 101 synthesized Mann's influence, utilizing both the wet streets and twinkling city lights of Thief, and the concrete blue shadows of Heat at varying times.

All of which looks excellent. Cinematographer Erik Wilson (who was director of photography on ALL THREE Paddington films!) unsurprisingly (he did all three!) handles the look of Crime 101 and makes it look easy. The film premiered earlier this year, so this isn't a restoration situation, but the transfer is solid. The shadows are deep, the city has texture, and the colors are sharp, (but not as saturated as in To Live and Die) and overall, this is just a slick looking thriller. 

The Audio: 4 stars

The sound here is, similar to above, very solid and the mix and balance are well-considered. I have a three-channel soundbar and never had any real issues. Sonically, this is a Set It and Forget It film, and that's a good thing. Nothing pulls me out of a movie like having to adjust the volume over and over to the point that I end up anticipating upcoming volume spikes. Despite the film having about as much casual volume dialogue as it does revving engines and gunfire, I never had to ride the volume knob. 

The soundtrack music and score never unintentionally drowns out the ambient sounds in a given scene either. Ormon (Keoghan), for instance, is introduced riding a motorcycle through downtown L.A. to an aggressive track from Run the Jewels, and the sound of the bike's engine under the track makes the sequence feel incredibly energizing. Later, Davis and Maya dance in his apartment to the radio. The song that plays is a live Bruce Springsteen track and even all the additional noise of an audience cheering doesn't muddy the sonic waters; you can still hear their conversation perfectly clearly.

The Supplements: 0 stars

So. This is where snagging a brand new, first run release tends to stumble. The disc has no additional materials at all. No preproduction or making of documentaries, no commentary tracks, no promotional featurettes, not even a trailer. Zip. Zilch. Nada. It's a bit of a double-edged sword in my opinion: it's a release purely for folks who dig the movie enough to own it. But by that same token, doesn't someone who loves the movie enough to snag the initial release deserve access to the deeper well of insight that bonus features provide?

Final Thoughts: Worth a Look 

I have repeatedly used the word 'solid' in this write-up, and I am about to do so for what I hope is the final time: As a film, Crime 101 is solid. If you caught it earlier in the year and want to have a copy on-hand, or you've simply heard good things, this release won't disappoint. If, however, you really like the flick and want to learn about the making of it, how difficult it may have been adapting it from page to screen, or what it was like working with Nick Nolte, you will be left wanting more.