Tag: mark-ruffalo

Crime 101 (2026)

  • Director: Bart Layton
  • Screenplay: Bart Layton
  • Based on: ‘Crime 101‘ by Don Winslow
  • Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Nick Nolte
  • Cinematography: Erik Wilson
  • Editing: Jacob Secher Schulsinger, Julian Hart
  • Score: Blanck Mass
  • Genre: Crime thriller
  • Runtime: 140 minutes

A jewel thief, Mike (Chris Hemsworth), carries out a series of robberies along Route 101 on the Pacific coastline; each with the same modus operandi; no civilian injuries, no evidence left at the scene – he’s in and out in a flash. His lawbreaking actions converge with an underappreciated insurance broker (Halle Berry) and a demented biker (Barry Keoghan). On Mike’s tail is dishevelled cop Det. Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), who’s under pressure from his boss to reduce the crime rate.

101 by name, 101 by nature. If this was your introduction to the genre, I’m sure you’d be amazed. For the more seasoned cinephiles, this is your basic crime thriller – a criminal on the run, moral ambiguity and a car chase. That’s not to say it’s bad in any sense, just that it doesn’t do anything spectacular in its 140 minute runtime. It lacks a certain punch. For this long of a film, it never felt like it dragged. It’s consistently engaging, building to a dramatic crescendo.

The man at the centre of everything, Mike, is the least compelling person here. There’s an attempt to flesh him out and his motivation behind his crimes but the subplot involving a love interest (Monica Barbaro) is fat that could be trimmed. The strong supporting cast deliver the goods; Ruffalo, Berry and Keoghan all breathe life into their character outlines.

That being said, the direction by Bart Layton is splendid. The nighttime highway aglow with cars; the whites of the headlights going one way, the reds of the taillights travelling the other. This single illuminated stretch of road as if it’s a vein, supplying the city with lifeblood. On the whole, it’s worth a watch.

My rating: 6 / 10

Mickey 17 (2025)

  • Director: Bong Joon Ho
  • Screenplay: Bong Joon Ho
  • Cast: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo
  • Cinematography: Darius Khondji
  • Editing: Yang Jin-mo
  • Score: Jung Jae-il
  • Genre: Science fiction black comedy
  • Runtime: 137 minutes

‘Oh Mickey, you’re so fine.

You’re so fine, you keep on dyin’.

Hey Mickey, hey Mickey.’

Which Mickey though? Mickey Barnes’ luck has run out on Planet Earth and with no options left, gets recruited to work as an ‘expendable’ in a colonising space mission. With all his memories and personality quirks intact (saved in a high-tech brick), Mickey’s body is merely a tool; used until no longer deemed necessary (upon the point of death), incinerated in a furnace, then printed out by a cloning device ad infinitum. He’s stabbed, gassed, poisoned, used as a guinea pig to manufacture an antidote – you name it. ‘What does it feel like to die?’, pretty much everyone asks him.

With moments of black humour, Bong Joon Ho’s epic science fiction fable (his first feature since ‘Parasite‘) muses on mortality – removing the idea of finality of life makes these expendables (or ‘print jobs’) less human, more akin to recyclable cattle. Mickey is told he’s special when he’s freshly printed but his existence is meaningless and he’s consigned to gruelling labour and eating bland food – what’s so special about it?

In fact, he suffers an accident during an assignment on the icy world Nilfheim and scientists have already generated the next iteration before the previous one has been declared dead, leading to a case of ‘multiples’. They’re not twins, they are the same person in two corporeal forms. As if he’s looking in a mirror.

Robert Pattinson is great in the dual role of Mickeys 17 and 18. The entire cast delivers strong performances; Naomi Ackie as a ballsy security officer (and Mickey’s love interest), Mark Ruffalo as the egotistical head of the colony and Toni Collette as his Lady Macbeth-style wife with an obsession with sauce. The second half delves into the political side of the expedition, with Ruffalo’s character taking centre stage, a little too reminiscent of a certain president. Gorgeously shot throughout, there may be multiple Mickeys, but there’s only one Bong Joon Ho.

My rating: 9 / 10