The Amateur - 4K Digital Review

[Michael Scott]

The Amateur

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The CIA has been the target of numerous spy films, serving as the shady “bad guy” for years, allowing audiences to root for rogue agents, whistleblowers, and generally acting as a cardboard cutout for shadowy villains ever since they were invented. The idea of a clandestine operation allows for the imagination to run wild, using truth as a springboard for said imagination to run wild. It’s how we got The Bourne Identity, Spy Game, and countless other movies regarding people finding out that the clandestine organization that was meant to be the good guys could go wild. But hey, who cares, it makes for exciting cinema, and spy movies have been a staple in the film world since before I was born. So the more the merrier. Couple that with the fact that Rami Malek is fascinating to watch as a unique character, so him playing a mousy data analyst seemed like something that would be in his wheelhouse.

Charles Heller (Rami Malek) is a brilliant CIA data analyst who not only happens to stumble on data that implicates his boss, Director Moore (Holt McCallany), in some cover-ups, but also loses his wife to a terrorist attack the same day while she was visiting London for a conference. Grief-stricken, Charles reacts with anger, begging Moore to punish those who were responsible. But after realizing that Moore has more to hide in this situation than he let on, the widower decides to do things his way. Leveraging the documents that he uncovered, Charles asks Director Moore to have him trained as an operative and give him the resources he needs to hunt down his wife’s killers.

Appearing to acquiesce to Charles’s demands, Moore sends him over to a specialist named Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) to give him training, all the while searching for the documents that Heller has been blackmailing him with so they can black box him before it’s too late. Unfortunately for them, Charles manages to get as much basic training as he can before giving Henderson the slip and setting out to wreak havoc on his wife’s killers.

The fascinating part of The Amateur is that it doesn’t make Charles a super spy who knows kung-fu and can shoot the wings off a fly. He absolutely sucks as your typical agent, not able to shoot that well, and without the mind of a trained killer. But being a data analyst who practically created the CIA’s modern surveillance tech means that he has an aptitude for building things and rigging up tech. Which allows him to set traps and scenarios for his victims that alleviate him from having to do any real muscle work. Which fits right into Rami Malek’s odd sort of characters that he likes to play.

For the first 45 minutes of the film, I was having a really good time. It was slick, had a nice setup with Malek losing it, and even an introduction to him becoming an impromptu agent. The first couple of kills worked well, with Heller booby trapping multiple locations to get his men in clever ways. The 2nd act does well, but starts to get bogged down with the side story of Inquiline and his asset’s personal problems. It might have worked if they actually fleshed out Inquiline’s tale a bit more, with her losing her husband and how that bonds her to Charles, but they don’t do that. It’s simply touched on for a couple of minutes before they’re thrown to the wolves as Director Moore sends the Russians after them. However, it’s the final act where things get silly. The final bad guy confrontation and resolution is simply too saccharine sweet, with too many loose ends tied up too nicely. There’s no struggle, no dilemma, just Charles getting to emotionally trauma dump, and then the film ends with the CIA Director (not Director Moore, the overseeing Director) delivering a Disney-level speech about accountability and happy endings all the way around.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for some strong violence and language.




Video:

As a home theater nerd, it’s almost part and parcel to complain when films get that overly blue tinge to them, but The Amateur takes “blue” to a whole other level. The film isn’t just overly blue, it’s downright GLOOMY after being bathed with a blue/gray filter that turns the film into basically a monochromatic image. It’s got some decent detail in the stream that I watched this on, but I will tell you this. The Amateur is not going to be a film where you are shocked and awed by the Dolby Vision and HDR10 application. It’s so gloomy and dark that colors don’t pop up outside of Blue/gray and some amber lights. The shadow details are enhanced by the HDR, but overall, this is not going to be your typical film that “pops” with color.








Audio:

The Dolby Atmos stream was solid enough, with no need to boost the audio up like most Disney mixes, yet still not a shock and awe track. The mix is decidedly front-heavy most of the time, with a lot of 90s spy era dialog-centric scenes to carry the weight. However, when called upon, the mix does really well. Explosions ring with power and depth, while the crackling of the suspended transparent glass pool is really wild and dynamic in regards to the surround usage. It’s not a shock and awe track, but the stream is solid enough for the type of film it is.







Extras:

• Deleted Scenes:
• Featurettes

Final Score: ​

Honestly, despite the ending, most of The Amateur is pretty good spy fun. It had a lot of potential to go the way of Tony Scott’s Spy Game, but that third act undercut the gritty dramatic part for a Disney-esque ending that feels a bit too jingoistic. I liked Laurence Fishbourne as Henderson, and Rami Malek delivered the goods, but felt like a cheaper knockoff of Michael Fassbender’s character in Black Bag. Overall, it was pulpy fun, but not anything that is going to win awards. I did get a chuckle out of Jon Bernthal making a 3-minute cameo in the movie as a super duper secret agent, but no new ground was tread here. Worth it as a rental.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Jon Bernthal, Laurence Fishburne, Holt McCallany
Directed by: James Hawes
Written by: Robert Littell, Ken Nolan, Gary Spinelli
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos
Subtitles: English
Studio: Disney Buena Vista
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 123 Minutes
Digital Release Date: June 9th, 2025

Recommendation: Rental