American Animals director Bart Layton is obviously no stranger to the crime genre, and his latest film Crime 101 based on the novella by Don Winslow is going full into the heist thriller. The film features an impressive cast including Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte and Halle Berry. Could this heist flick bring the twists and turns with the clever story direction, or will it fail to pull it off?

 

Crime 101 follows the tale of an elusive thief whose high-stakes heists unfolding along the iconic 101 freeway have mystified police. When he eyes the score of a lifetime with hopes of this being his final job, his path collides with a disillusioned insurance broker who is facing her own crossroads, forcing the two to collaborate. Determined to crack the case, a relentless detective closes in on the operation, raising the stakes even higher. As the multimillion-dollar heist approaches, the line between hunter and hunted begins to blur, and all three are forced to confront the cost of their choices–and the realization that there's no turning back. 

 

I love heist flicks and typically not expecting a lot of action but do want some clever writing and twists to bring it all together. This film has some great car chase sequences, which is all the real action that is here and that is fine, but it also tends to drag on in places as we are trying to get to the big heist. It’s never dull per say, but it tends to drag at times and rehash things that we could have just moved on to keep things moving.

 

The cast are great with each having their own arc as they make their way through this crime story heading towards a collision with each other as expected. I will say that for the amount of time they take to get to the point and have interactions there still seems to be a lot of flip flopping of sides with little