MovieGuys

0/10

I wont mix my words the only way to describe "The Amateur", is painfully long winded and ultimately, boring as hell. There are a lot of things that could have been done with what is, essentially, an action thriller. Regrettably, the overly long lead in, combined with the unreasonably timid handling, leads to a anti climatic experience, where the pay off in terms of thrills and actual action, never really arrives. Its by no means the casts fault. Lead actor, Rami Malek is as capable and convincing, as ever. The problem, in this reviewers opinion, is yet another case of a weak script, that needed to be thoroughly re-written. In summary, the concepts solid but the execution is lack lustre, long winded and excessively timid. Not recommended.

athosbr99

6/10

I left the movie theater with a very weird feeling. This movie has several actors that I enjoy watching (Malek, Fishburne, Bernthal). It has the genre that I like watching (action and espionage). However, in the end, it is just missing something to hook me up. It is not the worst movie that I watched but it left me with a feeling that it could be so much more than it is. The plot felt like someone said "what if we made Jason Bourne but the main lead can't fight or use guns?". Malek acting in the first part was a bit out of place, Fishburne doesn't get much screen time (although I liked his character and acting) and Bernthal barely appears and his character barely is relevant. The plot goes too fast when it should not and goes too slow when it should not (maybe it could work better if it was a show instead of a movie). The ending, although it was good in concept, felt rushed and left me with a "that is it?" face when the credits appeared. The Inquiline character deserved more development and could change the movie to be so much better. The casting of Malek seemed a bit deliberate to bait who watched Mr Robot, although I liked his acting in the second half of the movie and he held the movie together in a sense. I usually have a rule when an action movie has a weird or bad plot, the action sequences must make up for it (an example can be some Statham or Neeson movies). This movie has barely any action sequences and they don't fully hold up the plot that is just undercooked and full of tech tropes (that, again, would be looked the other way if the movie had better action to those that enjoy this kind of movie). I still give a six because I was still entertained at some level and to honest I am a sucker for spy movies. But unless you want an excuse to go to a movie theater, I would wait for this to pop-up on Disney+.

dizquik

4/10

TWO STARS A few bright spots in the darkness—but sadly, not enough literal brightness in the projection booth to save it. Meets: The Equalizer (2014–2023) meets You (2018–) with a heavy dose of “NSA-for-Dummies” DIY hacking, filtered through Jurassic Park’s Dennis Nedry—if he’d never left the server room and just got angrier and sweatier over the years. Score (or, “Drone Warfare”) • The soundtrack is not a score—it’s a low, sustained double-bass tantrum stretched across 110 minutes. • A single-note drone smothers every moment of tension and nuance like a wet wool blanket. • Only at the film’s climax does a trumpet finally pierce the fog, delivering a brief pianistic sequence as if to say, “Hey, we found another instrument!” • Flashbacks to Star Trek (2009) and a dreadful Superman reboot with its flat-sixth-above-root motif confirm it: composers, please stop trying to reinvent the wheel with one finger pressed on one key. Cinematography & Plot • Some of the camera work is genuinely strong, and there are moments where the suspense almost earns its keep. • But alas, we’re back in Spy Thriller Formula 101: The Nerdy Protagonist, The Stoic Mentor, The High-Level Betrayal, and The Data That Must Be Recovered™. • The lead (unnamed here out of mercy) looks thinner but more hollow than ever—aging in reverse, but not in a good way. Fishburne & the Face-Smack Phenomenon • Laurence Fishburne holds the center with practiced gravitas, but his repeated smacking of our hapless lead reads less as a performance choice and more like a trend check: “Still okay to slap in Hollywood?” • Between this and Will Smith’s Oscar moment, it’s hard not to feel the slow normalization of public male-on-male slapping as narrative punctuation. A dangerous precedent—unless you’re aiming for a new genre: Assault-as-Exposition. The Tech—Silly Yet Satisfyingly Close to Plausible • Let’s give credit where it’s due: the hacker MacGyver moments kind of work. • A USB stick hidden in a badge clasp that fools body scanners? Sure. • A printer hijack using a magnetic side panel to reprogram Xerox internals? Sigh-worthy, but within acceptable “TV crime lab” margins. • A panoramic face photo deployed across crowds to defeat facial recognition? Actually clever. • Digital breadcrumbs leading to your downfall? Every open browser tab right now is nodding in agreement. • The film unintentionally proves just how thin the line is between amateur hackers and government spooks—and these days, let’s be honest, the amateurs might actually be smarter. Politics: Too Real to Be Fiction • Quacks, grifters, and chaos agents in charge of America’s most sensitive agencies? Check, check, and check. • The scariest part of the film isn’t the espionage—it’s how little imagination was needed to write the power structure. Cameo Watch • Wayne Knight, a.k.a. Dennis Nedry from Jurassic Park, makes a surprise return as a rotund hacker with sketchy loyalties and a snack tray. • Props to him for landing another film. Subtracting points for clearly having kept the vending machine schedule from 1993. ⸻ Crafted with Hudson—your AI concierge, slap scene ethicist, and purveyor of dimly-lit disillusionment for modern cinema lovers.

CinemaSerf

0/10

“Heller” (Rami Malek) is the geeky “Jack Ryan” type, stuck in an office five floors below sunlight working on intelligence gathering and decrypting for the CIA. Intrigued by his latest set of dossiers from a deep throat somewhere on the internet, he suspects he has stumbled upon something nefarious. Before he has time to investigate, though, he hears that his wife has been the victim of a terrorist attack in London and so now he’s seeing red. Using the information he has recently obtained as leverage, he gets himself trained and equipped for an operational mission to get some revenge. Thing is, “Heller” isn’t a natural born killer, and despite the best efforts of his handler “Henderson” (Laurence Fishburne) he isn’t considered likely to be much more effective than a wet lettuce when it comes to killing anyone. What we now see is that there are more ways than one to skin a cat and brain can sometimes overcome brawn if applied with plenty of explosives, sticky tape and even the odd rogue missile. That’s perhaps the problem with this film: we’ve seen it all before - and more compellingly, too. Malek does enough but the rest of the cast really underwhelm and the set-piece action scenes come all too few and far between before an ending that really just fizzles out. James Hawes has presented us with a great looking film, packed with gadgets and gizmos, and the story also does make you realise just how big brotherly society has become with cameras apparently everywhere manipulating imagery from your shadow cast on a water-filled dustbin lid - but after a while, that all becomes a little repetitive and the plot settles into an implausible predictability. It has it’s moments, but sadly that’s all they are and this is a film that you’ll soon forget all about.

r96sk

0/10

<em>'The Amateur'</em> is not all that believable or unique, but it without question made for a satisfying time at the movies for me. It feels like a long while since I've seen Rami Malek in anything; fwiw, <em>'Oppenheimer'</em> over a year ago. This makes for a strong return into my world. Malek is the beating heart of the movie, as you'd expect. I mentioned that it doesn't come across as all that plausible, though that is only in regards to what the film ends up portraying; Malek is convincing as the main dude. Elsewhere, Laurence Fishburne and Michael Stuhlbarg are good. I was fully invested from beginning to end, so I can't really harbour any complaints. It's pure and simply a very well done movie, in my eyes at least. After the very good <em>'One Life'</em? and now this, James Hawes is turning into an interesting director to look out for.