Director - James Hawes 
Writer - Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli
Cast - Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, and Laurence Fishburne.
Duration – 124 Minutes 
 
There’s something inherently funny about a revenge thriller that’s afraid of its own revenge. The Amateur, the latest “I’m-just-an-average-guy-turned-assassin” flick, stars Rami Malek as a CIA basement dweller with a grieving heart and surprisingly mobile international travel skills. When his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, he asks the CIA to give him guns, skills, and green lights to go full Liam Neeson. They say no, of course, but in the most reluctant "fine-but-don’t-make-a-mess" kind of way. From there, the movie embarks on what should be a blood-pumping, nerve-wracking revenge spree... but instead, we get Revenge: Lite — the sugar-free, decaf, morally-ambivalent version.
 
The concept had promise: a nerd with code instead of combat skills, going rogue out of grief. Great! Let’s see him bumble through the field, outsmart baddies with encryption and sheer desperation, and maybe even surprise us. But instead of leaning into the awkwardness of what it should feel like when a guy who’s more Google Docs than Glock decides to go hunting, the movie plays it safe. Rami Malek, while a great actor, never convinces as someone who couldn’t survive a jog, let alone a gunfight. He’s too sharp, too knowing, too already halfway to spy to sell the amateur vibe. And while he frowns impressively, his transformation from code-cruncher to vengeance machine feels more like a minor costume change than an arc.
 
Director James Hawes, whose resume is filled with respectable British television, brings a glossy, competent sheen to the proceedings, but never lets things get messy in the way this story desperately needed. You keep waiting for something to happen — a wild scene, an emotional breakdown, an unexpected twist — but the film politely declines every opportunity to surprise you. Even Laurence Fishburne, cast as the grizzled trainer, is largely wasted. The man who once offered Neo the red pill barely gets a moment to show us why he was hired in the first place. He’s more life coach than lethal.
 
And then there’s the actual revenge. Or, as the film presents it: a vague, logistically-confusing series of location jumps (Madrid! Istanbul! Wherever!) where the main character seems to teleport rather than travel. The “targets” aren’t memorable. The motivation gets fuzzy. By the time he confronts the final guy, it feels less like a climactic reckoning and more like an awkward networking event gone wrong. “Hey, um, remember when you maybe blew up my wife?” cue unsatisfying emotional closure
 
The Amateur isn’t offensively bad. It’s not even trying hard enough to be that. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a shrug — not a bold failure, just a timid, over-thought execution of a great premise. It wants to be Bourne for the brainy introvert crowd, but ends up feeling like it should come with a complimentary Sudoku puzzle and herbal tea. If revenge is a dish best served cold, this one comes pre-chilled, wrapped in plastic, and with an expiration date already passed.