The story of Larceny: A heist inside a war zone
Larceny follows a professional thief pulled into a high-stakes operation when the CIA approaches him with what sounds like a straightforward job: rob a Mexican prison. Except nothing about it is straightforward. Once inside the walls, he discovers he's caught in the middle of a vicious power struggle between corrupt authorities running the facility and a drug cartel that controls much of what happens behind bars. What starts as a clean extraction becomes a fight for survival. The 86-minute runtime doesn't waste time with exposition — it plunges you into the chaos almost immediately, mixing heist mechanics with the unpredictable violence of a cartel war.
Behind the making of Larceny: Production and cast
Director R. Ellis Frazier helmed this U.S.-Mexico co-production in 2017, assembling a cast led by action veteran Dolph Lundgren, whose career has spanned everything from Jean-Claude Van Damme collaborations to direct-to-streaming action vehicles over the past two decades. Lundgren's presence alone signals the film's target audience — fans of practical action and no-apologies genre filmmaking. Supporting him is Louis Mandylor, a prolific character actor in the action space, alongside Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Jocelyn Osorio, and a crew of Mexican actors including Fabián López and Mauricio Mendoza who ground the story in its border setting. The film was shot with a modest budget typical of the action-thriller pipeline, prioritizing location authenticity (the Mexican prison setting carries real visual weight) over studio polish. It didn't achieve major theatrical distribution or significant awards recognition, but that's become almost irrelevant in the streaming era — Movie OTT tracks how films like this find their audience through platforms like Prime Video rather than multiplexes.
What makes Larceny work as an action thriller
Lundgren has spent enough years in action cinema that he knows what audiences want from him, and he doesn't overthink it here. What's striking is how the film doesn't try to be smarter than it is — it commits to the premise and executes it with workmanlike efficiency. The prison setting itself becomes a character, a maze of claustrophobic corridors and courtyards where every corner could hide a threat. There's a sequence early on where the heist plan starts unraveling, and you see Lundgren's character realize that his preparation means almost nothing against the sheer unpredictability of cartel violence. That's the real tension the film mines: not whether the heist succeeds (you can probably guess), but whether anyone walks out alive. The performances don't aim for nuance — they're functional, direct, built around physicality and reaction rather than introspection. Mandylor's role as an ally or antagonist (I won't spoil which) carries genuine menace because he commits to every threat. The action sequences themselves, while not groundbreaking, don't rely on quick-cut editing to hide their choreography. You can see what's happening. That matters more than you'd think in a film like this, where clarity of movement makes the violence legible and the stakes tangible.
Where to stream Larceny online
Larceny is currently available on Prime Video, making it accessible to anyone with an Amazon subscription. If you're browsing for action thrillers on the platform, check the where-to-watch widget at the top of this page to confirm current availability in your region, as streaming catalogs shift regularly. Movie OTT's streaming tracker helps you find where films land across services, so you don't waste time hunting. The film's relatively lean runtime — under 90 minutes — makes it ideal for a weeknight watch when you want something that doesn't demand a massive time commitment but delivers the genre goods.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Who directed Larceny?
R. Ellis Frazier directed this 2017 action thriller. He's worked primarily in direct-to-streaming and independent action cinema, bringing practical sensibilities to the genre.
Q: Is Larceny based on a true story?
No, Larceny is an original screenplay. While it draws on familiar heist and cartel-conflict tropes, it's a fictional narrative rather than an adaptation or true-crime retelling.
Q: Where can I watch Larceny?
Larceny is currently streaming on Prime Video. Use the where-to-watch widget above to check availability in your location.
Q: What's the runtime of Larceny?
The film runs 86 minutes, making it a tight, fast-paced thriller that doesn't overstay its welcome.
Q: What's the IMDb rating for Larceny?
Larceny has an IMDb rating of 3.6 out of 10. It's not a critical favorite, but that score reflects a specific audience expectation — viewers seeking polished prestige cinema will be disappointed, while action-thriller fans looking for straightforward genre entertainment may find more to appreciate.
Final thoughts on Larceny
Larceny isn't trying to reinvent the action-thriller wheel, and that's precisely the point. It's a film that knows its lane — efficient, unpretentious, built around the appeal of Dolph Lundgren doing what he does best in an escalating situation. The Mexican prison setting gives it visual distinction, and the cartel-versus-authorities angle adds real stakes beyond the heist itself. If you're the kind of viewer who appreciates action cinema that doesn't apologize for being action cinema, this one's worth the 86 minutes. Just don't expect it to change your life.
