5 Years Later, Matt Damon’s 10/10 Crime Thriller Dominates HBO Max Streaming

Some films get buried by the year they came out, and No Sudden Move was one of them. Steven Soderbergh’s crime thriller arrived as an HBO Max original in 2021, when half the world was still deciding whether to go back to cinemas. Matt Damon turns up late, in an uncredited cameo, as the man who has been holding the strings the whole time.

The story unfolds in 1954 Detroit. Don Cheadle plays Curt Goynes, an ex-convict who needs one clean job to get out of town, and Benicio del Toro is Ronald Russo, the partner he gets stuck with. A barely recognizable Brendan Fraser plays a shadowy operator named Jones, who hires them to babysit an accountant’s family while the accountant steals a document from his employer’s safe.

Five years on, it has resurfaced, sitting at No. 7 on HBO Max’s U.S. movie chart on August 24, according to FlixPatrol.

No Sudden Move Is Climbing HBO Max’s Viewership Chart in the U.S

Benicio Del Toro and Don Cheadle in No Sudden Move | Credits: HBO Max

No Sudden Move cracked the top 10 on HBO Max in the U.S. and has stayed there for 3 days now. The film sat at No. 8 on Sunday and nudged up one place to No. 7 by Monday. It is a steady climb that catalogue titles rarely manage five years after release.

Why bother with it? Because the cast is faintly absurd. Don Cheadle and Benicio del Toro anchor it, with David Harbour as the sweating accountant, Amy Seimetz as his wife, Jon Hamm as a detective, Ray Liotta as a mob boss, and Kieran Culkin, Julia Fox, Noah Jupe, and Bill Duke filling out the edges.

Ed Solomon’s script keeps folding back on itself. Every character in the movie is lying to somebody, and the double-crosses stack up until the small-time crooks realise they are just a small part in a corporate conspiracy about the auto industry.

Steven Soderbergh shoots it himself, using wide lenses that bend the frame and make the whole thing feel slightly off-balance. The rest of the chart includes Normal at the top spot ahead of Mother Mary and The Drama.

Steven Soderbergh’s Star-Studded Crime Drama Received Critical Acclaim

Matt Damon in a still from No Sudden Move | Credits: HBO Max

Critics were on board from the start. No Sudden Move holds a 92% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes as of August 24, 2026, where the consensus reckons that even if it is not quite Steven Soderbergh’s “finest crime caper,” he squeezes everything he can from a stacked ensemble.

The critics loved the plotting and the cast, with many praising the densely plotted script full of dirty dealings. The filmmaker deals with themes of class and money, which further proves his understanding of the genre. Matt Damon’s cameo drew its own attention despite lasting only minutes. His matter-of-fact explanation of how the money really moves stole the entire scene.

However, audiences didn’t love the movie as much as the critics did at the time of its release. The audience score stood at 59%, which is expected for a talky and tangled movie like this. The current HBO Max surge for the movie suggests that the viewers are finally ready for this movie.

What do you think of the movie and Damon’s small role in it? Let us know in the comments below!