I Don't Understand Crime 101's High Rotten Tomatoes Score, So I Made Myself Watch It Again

When I saw Crime 101, Chris Hemsworth’s first release on the 2026 movie schedule (Doomsday is coming), I was disappointed. I love a great heist movie, and I was excited for this, thinking it’d be a really fun popcorn chomper of an action flick. I wrote about how I thought it was a little too long, owing mostly to a somewhat pointless love story, and I thought the movie was full of silly tropes and lazy plot devices (plus a one-car car chase that was kind of ridiculous).

Then I started seeing a bunch of reviews from critics and fans alike who really liked the movie. The Rotten Tomatoes score kind of blew my mind. It’s currently sitting at 89% on the Tomatometer and 85% on the Popcornmeter. What in the world did I miss here? What were other people seeing that I wasn’t? I had to watch it again, so I fired up my Prime Account, where it is currently streaming, and gave it another shot.

My Opinion Hasn’t Changed

As anyone can relate, sometimes when you see a movie for the first time, you’re in the wrong mood for the movie, or you’ve got other things on your mind. Sometimes a first impression is a bad one. My most notable experience with that was seeing The Big Lebowski in theaters when it was released in 1998. I hated it. It’s now perhaps my favorite movie of all time. I didn’t expect the same thing to happen with Crime 101, but given how much some people really liked it, I felt I owed it a second chance.

So after watching this weekend, I came away from it with the exact same feelings as I had the first time. It’s a trope salad that looks slick, but just under the surface, it feels hollow. The love story between Hemsworth’s character, Mike/James, and Maya (Monica Barbaro) is still pointless. The dialogue is still stilted and shallow. The cat-and-mouse game between Mike and Sharon (Halle Berry) still didn’t get me excited, and Barry Keoghan’s character Ormon still feels unnecessarily psychotic.

All The Pieces Are There For A Really Fun Movie, But…

On paper, this movie should work, and I think it should work for me. I think it’s the perfect kind of role for Hemsworth, and, frankly, the whole cast is in roles that work really well for them. Mark Ruffalo as a down-and-out-but-brilliant detective is right up his alley. Nick Nolte as the grizzled veteran thief is also a fantastic role for him. But none of it really works for me.

As I said, it’s slick, some of the stunt work is wonderful, and I like the general story, but it never gelled. There is just something off about it. It might just be me (in fact, it clearly is, given the Rotten Tomatoes score), but it’s not going to end up on my list of best heist movies, and it really has been yearning for the next big heist movie on my radar, Michael B. Jordan’s remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. I’m hoping for big things from the Oscar-winner!