The Amateur is one of those movies that is so dull and boring you realize most people in the cast probably did it for a nice paycheck. The budget is $60 million but the action sequences are sloppy and forgettable.
The director, James Hawes, has been directing mostly TV shows and TV movies, which explains a lot. The cast reads like it should be a wonderful movie. Rami Malek is the lead as a Charlie Heller who works for the CIA. Laurence Fishburne place Col. Robert Henderson. The supporting cast includes Rachel Brosnahan as Charles’ wife who is killed off in the first act. The villain is Horsct Schiller (Michael Stuhlberg) who barely seems to appear.
Other actors include Julianne Nicholson as the CIA Diretor, Holt McCallany as the corrupt deputy director of the CIA, Jon Bernthal as a CIA operative who probably was paid a nice salary for what is an extended cameo. Caitriona Balfe plays Charle’s contact who helps him. But at about two hours with credits, this movie drags along with European background settings that seem as dull and uninteresting as your grandparents’ showing you their pictures of a trip to the Poconos.
Malek never seems to be believable as a tech geek who goes on to be a Jason Bourne type of character. His training under Henderson is shorter than the training sequence of Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase in Spies Like Us. But that movie was intended as a comedy. This one is played straight and never has one shed of excitement.
But like the Cannonball Run movies, this was probably filmed with the actors shooting their scenes mostly at once for two-three weeks never meeting the other cast members and never really feeling attached with the rest of the movie.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 