Review: ‘Crime 101’ doesn’t waste its eye-popping cast

At a critical juncture in director/screenwriter Bart Layton’s extraordinary noir-saturated heist thriller, two main characters are seated in a car discussing a pair of iconic Steve McQueen – 1968’s “Bullitt” and 1968’s “The Thomas Crown Affair.”

It’s one of those classic nostalgic exchanges any crime movie lover will relish, in what turns out to be a new classic of the genre pinned around a rash of heists on Highway 101 in SoCal and a cop, a hothead and a claims adjuster who are drawn into the action.