THE AMATEUR (2025): A Shiny Penny

THE AMATEUR (Digital) 

2025 / 123 min

From 20th Century Studios

Review by Princess Pepper😽

On Digital NOW and 4K, Blu-ray & DVD July 8.

If you must remake an older film, why not choose one that wasn’t all that great or memorable to begin with?

1981’s The Amateur certainly qualifies. I think I watched this one on cable a year or two after it came and went in theaters. While certainly watchable, it was nothing particularly remarkable. 40+ years later, I recall almost nothing about the film beyond its title and star (John Savage).

This new version is sort of a shiny new penny, with sequences and special effects typical of most modern action films. But a shiny penny is still just a penny. While 2025’s The Amateur is an enjoyable thriller featuring a solid performance by an actor who isn’t the first name that comes-to-mind for this sort of thing, this one isn’t particularly memorable either.

Rami Malek plays Charlie Heller, a nebbish CIA cryptologist who spends most days behind a desk. When his wife is murdered by terrorists while travelling abroad, he understandably wants revenge. Though Charlie’s boss, CIA director Alex Moore (Holt McCallany) assures him that they’ll find those responsible and bring them to justice, Charlie wants to kill them personally and insists they train him for that very thing.

Since Charlie has discovered Moore has the CIA involved in shady activities related to these same terrorists, he blackmails his boss into agreeing. Despite some training by Hendo Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), Charlie doesn’t have what it takes to actually shoot someone. However, targeting the terrorists with his tech skills is another matter altogether. This leads to some creative kills once Charlie begins hunting them down (easily the highlight of the movie). Meanwhile, Heller orders Hendo to find and kill Charlie.

Remi gets carded.

Though Malek gives an earnest, sympathetic and mostly believable performance, the movie’s a little poky at first. Things liven up once he discovers methods of killing that he is good at. Those scenes are creatively depicted and a lot of fun, especially one involving explosives and a glass swimming pool bridging two hotel towers. 

However, the story itself is a standard issue revenge thriller that holds few surprises. The only real difference between Charlie and any other grieving husband avenging his wife is that he doesn’t use a gun. For the most part, none of the other characters really stand-out either, including the antagonists, a majority of whom are introduced just before they’re about to die.

Ultimately, The Amateur is an enjoyable time killer with decent action sequences, but offers little we haven’t seen before. While it ain’t two hours of your life you’ll never get back, most viewers probably won’t give it another thought afterwards. Kinda like the original.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTES - The Team; The World; The Pool (making of the film’s best scene); The Score.

5 DELETED SCENES