Tuesday, April 15, 2025

The Amateur

 


 

British director James Hawes moves out of his usual terrain of series television to tackle the globe-trotting revenge thriller, The Amateur starring Rami Malek. A picture that is undermined by the thinness of its premise and the thoroughness of its trailer. 
 
Every big moment in the story of a CIA analytical genius's quest to hunt down the people who killed his wife is contained in the picture's 2-minute trailer, including most of Laurence Fishburne's featured turn as a trainer of agency assets who tells Malik's Charlie Heller he doesn't have the heart of a killer. Heller, of course, spends most of the movie showing there's more than one way to kill a black-ops spy. 
 
The Amateur is a bit of fun at times and owes much to the Bourne catalogue but could use a bit more derring-do, another car chase or two and villains that snarl better than Holt McCallany and Danny Sapani.

 

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