Crime 101 | Film Review

 

A thief (Chris Hemsworth) and an insurance broker (Halle Berry) team up to pull off a huge heist, while being pursued by a detective (Mark Ruffalo).

I was looking forward to this one. It took me a while to actually see it, but even though the premise seemed quite generic, the cast was interesting enough to generate excitement.

I think the film was fine, nothing really special, but I definitely had fun with it, so it's worth a watch.

At the start there was too much going on in quick succession. The audience doesn't get a chance to breathe, which is an interesting way to mirror the main characters' emotions, but it also makes your head spin.

As mentioned, the cast is great. But I did feel about halfway through that it may have suffered from having too many power players fighting for the spotlight. I personally would have liked to have more depth from both Berry and Ruffalo's characters, I didn't get to know them as well as I would have liked.

I found the first 40 minutes hard to get into, but once we got past that section, you can settle in and really enjoy the story.

The cat-and-mouse angle is always fun in a film like this, and this one in particular does that well. There are reasons to root for all the characters, which keeps things entertaining.

The downfall of the film, for me, was that I didn't have a deep interest in any of the characters, main or supporting, and some of the performances weren't strong enough to make you care about them the way you should.

I also felt like it was trying to be too many different things, which can come from having three characters with distinct motives that could easily be the one main character in a different movie. By making them all as important as each other, at times it feels like watching three different movies and not getting enough of any.

But because these characters were all interesting, I can see why it would work for a lot of people.

Overall, I did have a good time with this film, but it wasn't the best heist/detective movie I've ever seen. I would recommend it.

6.5/10