My Weekend With a Couple of Bad Boys: How To Make a Killing and Crime 101

February 2026

 

I just spent the weekend watching movies about Bad Boys...

 

You know the archetype...

 

The fella who spends the movie committing crimes...

While you watch the film hoping he doesn’t get caught...

 

And here’s how it went...

 

First up... one of the Bad Boys starts killing his relatives...

In the pursuit of a massive inheritance...

 

But here is my two-word review of that movie... How To Make a Killing...

 

Glen Powell and Margaret Qualley...

 

Because it’s hard to hate Powell... who radiates charisma...

 

And Qualley should thank her mother for not fixing that slight overbite...

Because that girl has a smile that would melt an iceberg...

 

So when Powell is sitting in his cell awaiting his well-deserved execution...

You can’t help but hope he gets away at the last minute...

 

And Qualley nails the black widow vixen vibe...

But you smile every time she comes in a scene...

Because it’s hard to take your eyes off her...

 

And as an added benefit...

 

Topher Grace is great as Pastor Steven....

Who is going to save your soul while he picks your pocket...

 

And Ed Harris gets five wonderful minutes as a murderous patriarch ...

Helped in no small part by a face that looks like a dried-up lakebed...

 

So as a dark comedy... How To Make a Killing works...

 

And not just because it has some unexpected plot twists...

 

And an ending that makes you feel really sorry for Powell’s character...

 

But because it’s hard to make a bad movie with these actors...

 

But then there’s Crime 101....

 

Which put me to sleep...

 

Despite the fact that it has...

 

He of Great Hair... Mark Ruffalo...

 

As the cop after...

The jewel thief who robs along the 101...

 

Ruffalo has now entered his Teddy Bear phase...

All rumpled and chubby with lots of stubble...

As if he is now Peter Falk in the making...

 

And Halle Berry... who looks amazing for a woman pushing 60...

Is given a role here...

Where she is particularly adept at taking everyone’s true temperature...

 

But, fortunately, this plot device is too little utilized...

 

And then there is Barry Keoghan...

 

Who BTW makes a great villain...

 

And I loved the blond spiked hair and flashy dirt bike gear...

 

And there were lots of realistic ...

 

For a welcome change...

 

Chase scenes that are obviously a homage to Bullit...

And this film is quite overt about that...

 

Now Crime 101 makes an attempt to be a film noir...

 

LA looks bleak...

With pollution hovering over a city...

With streets full of homeless...

 

And awful soul-crushing traffic...

 

And a cast of unsavory characters...

 

Such as corrupt policemen...

Predatory insurance execs...who are never going to pay your claim...

Wealthy... who think the rules don’t apply to them...

And a Darwinian corporate culture that kicks you to the curb five minutes after you turn 50......

 

Which makes you start to think maybe Luigi Mangione had a point...

 

But by the end of the film... it turns out everyone decides to get in on the take...

 

Even the little people you thought were the good guys...

 

Except, surprisingly, the Middle Eastern diamond dealers...

Who seemed to be the only honest folks in this film...

 

And I really didn’t see that coming...

 

So I came to the conclusion by the end of the Crime 101 ...

That the message of this movie was...

 

If everyone else is cheating...

 

You’re a chump if you don’t...

 

Which... I guess is very film noir

 

So there was potential in this story...

 

Even if it lacked plot twists that kept you guessing...

And you could see the ending coming a mile away...

 

But there was the potential to explore a series of interesting character studies...

As well as interrogate some of the less attractive aspects of our current culture ...

 

Such as the enshittification of everything...

 

And then there is the main character... the jewel thief...

Who is the victim of intergenerational trauma...

And is shut down...

Emotionally...

About as tight as a bank vault...

 

But with an almost innocent vulnerability...

That makes him sympathetic....

 

So there was a lot to work with here in this story...

 

So whose idea was it to hire Chris Hemsworth?

 

That Cardboard Comic Book Boy...

From those endless Superhero flicks...

Where the only requirement is to look good in a ridiculous costume...

 

So Glenn Powell and Margaret Qualley made How to Make a Killing a fun dark comedy...

And Chris Hemsworth sank Crime 101...

 

Which is a lesson... that sometimes casting is everything...

 

Because if you are going to make a Bad Boy Movie...

 

And since I saw a lot of them this weekend... I’m now weighing in on this topic...

 

The Bad Boy has to be someone the audience wants to root for...

 

While he is busy committing crimes...

 

And good directors have known for decades...

 

From To Catch a Thief to Ocean’s Eleven...

 

That being good-looking helps...

 

But the Bad Boy also needs to have something resembling an actual personality...

 

He needs to be charming...

And part of that charm is that he is confident and comfortable in his own skin...

 

Because part of his attraction...

Is that he knows and accepts who he is...

 

So we can... too...

 

So he cannot just be an actor with a nice set of baby blues...

 

Who has the personality of a rock....

 

                                                      

 

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