Most heist films hide the plan until the vault is open. The crew in How to Rob a Bank do the opposite: they film every job and post it online as a tutorial, and the more banks they hit, the bigger their audience grows.
David Leitch, the director of Bullet Train and The Fall Guy, has built a slick, modern heist thriller around that idea. It opens in UK cinemas this Friday through Sony Pictures, and in the US through Amazon MGM Studios.
It moves like a feed you cannot stop scrolling, and it is about as deep.
Movie at a Glance
- UK release: In cinemas from Friday 13 November 2026 (Sony Pictures Releasing UK)
- US release: In cinemas from Friday 13 November 2026 (Amazon MGM Studios)
- Director: David Leitch
- Writer: Mark Bianculli
- Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz, Anna Sawai, Rhenzy Feliz, Pete Davidson, John C. Reilly and Christian Slater
- Certificate: 15 (UK)
- Runtime: Just over two hours
- Genre: Heist thriller, action
Viewer Match
- Best for: Fans of Bullet Train, slick heists and very watchable casts.
- Maybe skip if: You want a heist film with real political bite.
- Mood and pace: Fast, flashy and playful, with very little downtime.
- Cinema or streaming? Cinema. The set pieces and the sound are made for a big screen and a crowd.
- Spoiler level: Spoiler-free: we only describe the set-up.
The Revolution Will Be Streamed
Nicholas Hoult plays Ryan, the masked ringleader of a crew who turn their robberies into viral videos and present themselves as modern Robin Hoods taking on predatory banks. On their trail are a veteran FBI agent, played by John C. Reilly, and a brilliant software engineer, played by Zoë Kravitz, who sets out to read the crew’s own footage against them.
Leitch has fun with the format. The film borrows the language of online video, with on-screen asides that explain a trick mid-chase before snapping back to the action, and it keeps the pace high. Get a taste of it in our How to Rob a Bank clips post.
A Likeable Crew
The cast is the film’s biggest asset. Hoult is charismatic and slippery as Ryan, Kravitz brings a cool intelligence to the hunt, and Reilly, Anna Sawai, Rhenzy Feliz and Pete Davidson all get moments to shine. By the final job, you are surprisingly invested in whether the gang get away with it.
The action is polished and inventive in the way Leitch’s films usually are, with plenty of crunch and a sense of humour.
Thin Under the Masks
Where the film struggles is everything underneath. Its anger at the banking system is reduced to one obviously villainous target, the crew’s backstories get a single emotional beat each, and the politics are spelled out so plainly that there is little left to think about once the credits roll.
It also never quite resolves the irony of a blockbuster about influencers selling itself through the same platforms. Leitch seems to enjoy that contradiction rather than question it.
Hit the Big Screen
As a slick, crowd-pleasing night out, it delivers. For everything else opening this weekend, see this week’s Weekly Cinema Pack, and for tonight on TV and streaming, see What to Watch Tonight.
Spoiler-Free Verdict
How to Rob a Bank is fast, funny and stylish, with a terrific cast and some clever ideas about crime as content. Its politics and characters are paper-thin, but it is rarely less than entertaining.
- Performances: 7.5/10
- Direction: 7/10
- Screenplay: 5.5/10
- Score: 6.5/10
- Cinematography: 7/10
- Entertainment Value: 7.5/10
- Overall score: 6.5/10
Star rating: 3/5
Verdict badge: Best watched in the Cinema
One-line verdict: A slick, likeable heist that is all surface and no vault.
Watch the Official Trailer
Watch the crew go viral in the official UK trailer from Sony Pictures Releasing UK.
Would you subscribe to the crew’s channel? Tell us what you thought of How to Rob a Bank.