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

Purchase your copy from Orbit HERE 

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.

"AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019)"

It's fair to say I was suffering from a spell of Franchise Fatigue leading up to my viewing of Avengers: Endgame but...that may be the perfect headspace to go into it with?

Do you realize it hasn't even been a full year since Avengers: Infinity War came out (or Endgame: Part One if ya nasty) but in that time, two other Marvel movies have hit theaters? Wanna know where Ant-Man was when Thanos blew into town? You've gotta see Ant-Man and the Wasp. And then you've gotta go see Captain Marvel (who was teased in the Infinity War post-credit stinger) so you'll know...who the hell that even is. It's starting to feel like homework.

"12 Strong (2018)"

The following is my review of 12 Strong, written for Moviejawn.
This is the unedited version, so any spelling or grammatical errors or vagueness is my own.
Plus, I Googled up some pics for added pizzazz.

I was instructed by Moviejawn HQ to focus solely on Michael Shannon for the duration of my viewing of the film 12 Strong; his performance, how his character's actions help move the story along, etc., etc. But bad news: there isn't nearly enough Michael Shannon in this flick.

Don't get me wrong now, I know this is based on a true story (and the book Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton) but it's still a movie, not a documentary and I intend to talk about it from that perspective. As such, I will reiterate: I am sorely lacking in Michael Shannon in this movie. That isn't to say that the other performances aren't enjoyable. Chris Hemsworth does the stoic action movie thing as Captain Mitch Nelson just fine. Michael Peña is inexorably likable as the sarcastic Sgt First Class Sam Diller, joking about buying timeshares in the middle of a crossfire; Trevante Rhodes makes his performance as Sgt First Class Ben Milo shine through a familiar tough-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold shtick; and Navid Negahban takes you from distrusting his General Dostum to admiring his willingness to make peace amidst a war. All these performances are very engaging.

But none. Of them. Is Michael Shannon.

Shannon (as Chief warrant Officer Hal Spencer) enters in the second scene of the movie. We've opened with pre-9/11 terrorism news footage (for context) and seen Thor's family (his daughter turns off the 1987 Chipmunk Adventure movie to find 9/11 happening), but Michael Shannon and the rest of his team were on a training exercise, waist-deep in a river in full camouflage, complete with face paint, when the attacks happened. Shannon speaks for all of America at that moment in time:

MS: "What happened?"

Back at the military base, Shannon and his crew are trying to process everything and sort out what to do next when Thor shows up. They had been a unit until recently, when Hemsworth had requested a desk job to be near his family but now he's itching to defend America. Only problem is Colonel Bowers (Rob Riggle) doesn't think he can cut it. Luckily, Michael Shannnon is there to go to bat for him, telling Bowers:

MS: "You pull this team, you're cutting the head off of your most venomous snake."


Shannon's wife (Allison King) finds him packing thermal underwear in the garage and, cliche though it may be, Shannon definitely sells the idea that none of these men want to leave their families, but are duty-bound to it. His face when he tells his son he loves him is heartbreaking.

After that, Shannon does what he does best, apparently: standing behind Thor, lending him gravitas through sheer proximity as Thor takes a meeting with Colonel Mulholland (William Fichtner) to pitch himself as the right man to lead the task force into Afghanistan. Perhaps thanks to Shannon, Mulholland agrees. They'll be the first team into the region after 9/11, using (at the time) cutting edge technology to call in precision airstrikes. Hemsworth equates them (through sheer volume of unknowns) to the first men in space, to which Shannon unleashes a charmingly unhinged laugh:

MS: "You know what they sent into space first? A monkey!"


Thor picks his team (spoilers: there's 12 of them) and they find out that they'll be using a sandstorm as cover to fly in to meet their escort, travelling at 1,500 feet in a chopper designed for a third that height, exposed to the elements and without the benefit of oxygen tanks, at the risk of hypoxia. Michael Shannon is the defacto Chopper Cheerleader in this scene, reassuring everyone that they kind of have no choice so why not just get it over with. They land, make their rendezvous, and are lead to an outpost nicknamed The Alamo to await a meeting with Afghan warlord General Dostum (Negahban) who will be their guide in the region, helping them locate Taliban factions.

When Dostum arrives, he mostly ignores Thor, focusing instead on Michael Shannon, who he kisses on both cheeks. Dostum tells Thor that he doesn't have killer's eyes, like Michael Shannon and the others do. Clearly Michael Shannon is the teacher's pet (warlord's pet?).

Up until this point, I though I knew what the drinking game for this movie would be: Drink every time Michael Shannon stands around a little behind Hemsworth, looking like the Serious Man he is, which Shannon has done quite a bit. But General Dostum apparently has other plans: he only brought 6 ponies meaning Thor has to split Task Force Dagger in twain! So, I mean, of course you want Michael Shannon in charge of the Bravo team (who are staying behind at the Alamo) because he's your right hand man, but it sucks for me and any other Shannon-heads because he's effectively out of the movie for half of it!

Eventually the two halves do reconnect, but Shannon's Hal Spencer suffered a slipped disc from riding the horses and spends a lot of the back end of this movie laying down! (For Pete's sake! I came here for the Michael Shannon and now you're just teasing me!) On the positive side, Shannon does have the line: "That's the great thing about air strikes, you can call 'em in laying down!" and in the final action sequence, we get some nice Michael Shannon: Sniper action, but then to add injury to insult, Spencer gets injured.

This is where the movie and I really gelled because at that point Hemsworth's sole focus becomes taking out this big honkin' multiple missile launcher the Taliban has mounted on a pickup because as long as it's active, they won't be able to get a rescue chopper in to save Michael Shannon. And, as though the movie knew it had to make it up to me, it saved the best action sequence for the Shannonless gap right here: Hemsworth, on horseback, leading a group of General Dostum's men directly through a war zone to take out this Rocket Thing. It's a sequence that could have felt very much like a video game, but managed not to. The direction is all very close, showing how all the man on horseback were essentially rubbing shoulders with each other in this assault.

I do have to give this movie props (do the kids still say props?) in one regard though: their treatment of the horses. There were a lot of instances of CG gunfire and explosions, which would usually bug me, but I believe in this instance it was done in service of the animal actors; obviously a CG explosion is preferable to scaring holy hell out of some poor unassuming horse actor who only knows he's supposed to do his "falling down trick" now. There were also two shots of kind of hilariously fake horses presumably getting shot and throwing their riders. Director Nicolai Fuglsig and / or DP Rasmus Videbæk shot around them very well, but I was specifically looking for these type of effects.

In case you couldn't tell from my inability to call the Rocket Thing by whatever its proper term is, I'm not a big military guy and when I do watch a war movie, I tend to go for the older films or the ones about the older wars. Maybe that's because they're over? I'm not sure. Regardless, this movie does a good job of keeping things in perspective. Obviously this is a war that we, as a country, are still involved in so it would be impossible to give the movie some kind of grand scale view of the whole thing, as that would require distance we couldn't possibly have. So keeping everything focused on this team and what they accomplished is smart and effective.

It also avoids pandering to patriotism, which I find incredibly distasteful. "Because America" is never really used as a justification for anything, or a rallying cry, and things aren't as oversimplified as they could've been. Instead the situation with what's known as the Northern Alliance (basically all the disparate military groups that want the Taliban out of that region) is depicted as being a tenuous and complex lacework of smaller alliances; that old adage "My enemies enemies are my friends" is touched on with the caveat that they may not all be friends with each other.

All in all this isn't quite the military movie I was expecting, for better or worse. In my head, it was a wild, horse-ridin', gun shootin' adventure called Them Horse Boyz but the reality was a fairly measured film about soldiers being incredibly good at their jobs and accomplishing one groundbreaking feat after another. If this movie even kind of seems like your thing, I'd recommend it, just don't expect to get enough Michael Shannon.