The Chris Hemsworth heist flick puts Langer’s Deli, the Beverly Wilshire and Grand Central Market on the big screen

There’s a scene in the sprawling new heist movie Crime 101 set at Langer’s Deli in MacArthur Park, only you might not recognize the place at first glance. The scenes at the historic restaurant were shot at night, and Langer’s has not served a #19 sandwich after dark for years. The place looks beautiful after 4 p.m. and the 1960s coffee shop interior is perfect for a dangerous conversation.

Langer’s Deli in MacArthur ParkCredit: Photo by Cliff Hutson

The film’s location manager, Robert Foulkes, an expert in L.A. filming known for his work on movies ranging from Terminator 2 to La La Land, recently spoke with film expert and “locationologist” Harry Medved for the PBS show Locationland. “Chinatown was voted as the number one Los Angeles movie of all time,” Foulkes tells Medved in the show. “Which is a tall order because there’s a lot of them.”

More than a century of films have been set in – or at least shot here. As the pair set out to explore Crime 101 locales, they find out what other movies have previously shot there. The counter at Grand Central Market, where slick Chris Hemsworth meets up with gravelly Nick Nolte to discuss an upcoming robbery, is the same one where Seb and Mia meet up in La La Land. In fact, there’s a sign at Sarita’s Pupuseria inviting guests to commemorate their moment on the same blue stools where Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone have their date.

Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Crime 101Credit: Photo by Dean Rogers

The lower Grand Avenue tunnel Barry Keoghan races through in Crime 101 is the same concrete jungle seen in Live Free or Die Hard, The Soloist and even Batman rides through in The Dark Knight Rises. Foulkes and Medved walk us through the litany of film noirs, including Criss Cross, Kiss Me Deadly and Act of Violence that shot on Angels Flight; it’s a wonder this new noir didn’t also use the tiny funicular across the street.

“There’s a framework,” director Bart Layton told Variety. “With which I can start to explore issues of class and, you know, wealth inequality and status anxiety and some of those things which you know, are to do with, not limited to L.A., but L.A. is a very particular place which does create quite a good deal of pressure to have status and wealth and all of that stuff.”

It is a little unbelievable that Hemsworth’s character would choose some of the insane commutes in the film. Who lives at the beach and selects a taco stand in Echo Park for a date. That’s not going to last. Crime 101 is a thoughtful popcorn movie filled with Oscar-winning actors, and we get to see our hometown on the big screen again. Plus, we know that L.A. crews had a good project to work on, and more and more, that alone is a rare and wonderful thing for our city.

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