Crime 101: all-star diamond heist thriller feels like a rewarmed version of Michael Mann’s Heat

A heist movie which sprawls across a pointedly diverse cross-section of Los Angeles locations, relies on muscle-car chases instead of CGI for thrills, and enlists actors frequently tethered to comic-book roles for character-driven genre drama, Crime 101 seems eager to be described as a ‘throwback.’ Specifically, it is a throwback to Michael Mann’s Heat (1995), from whose exam sheet it cribs to a borderline-comic degree.

Chris Hemsworth is Mike Davis, a professional thief, like Robert De Niro’s Neil McCauley, who leaves no trace, much to the consternation of dogged, haggard police detective Lou (Mark Ruffalo), whose marriage, like that of Al Pacino’s Vincent Hanna, is falling apart. Davis gets his tips from a cyber whiz (Devon Bostick in Heat’s Tom Noonan role) and reports to a grizzled gangster (Nick Nolte for Jon Voight). A crack of sentimentality opens in Davis’ facade when he meets Maya (Monica Barbaro) – her dark hair is as fashionably glossy as Amy Brenneman’s, in 1995, was fashionably voluminous – who is drawn to him despite the lack of furnishings in his apartment, and its existentially fraught Pacific ocean views through floor-to-ceiling windows. Characters face each other from opposite sides of diner booths that fill the widescreen frame, and Davis’ plans for a job that will allow him to walk away clean are complicated by a sloppy and sadistic wild card: Barry Keoghan, with a lazy giggle and itchy trigger finger as a bottle-blond Waingro.

Director Bart Layton, who also adapted the script from Don Winslow source novella, cross-cuts between his characters, which include Halle Berry as Sharon, an insurance adjuster with a line on some diamonds; instead of radio, parallel montages of Davis, Lou and Sharon on their daily commutes are set to a voiceover track of yoga-studio affirmations. Initially ironic, the mantras about being grateful and present foreshadow their respective disillusionments with the rat race, embodied by Lou’s corrupt LAPD superiors, Sharon’s smarmy boss, and Davis’ unsentimental materialism, which shields a traumatic past. Davis is nervous talking to women and gets the shakes when a job turns violent – his cuddly backstory is a pandering touch to go along with the applause-sign anti-capitalism that eventually brings the entirely sympathetic trio onto the same side. 

Crime 101, named for the LA freeway along which Davis pulls his jobs, looks oppressively classy: the images have the silver sheen of a sports car and a cool halogen glow, with smeary accents of brake-light red. Aiming for timeless elegance, the movie ends up as drab as a traffic jam.

► Crime 101 is in UK cinemas 13 February.