The Amateur (2025)

The Amateur is a revenge thriller where the hero’s big weapon is homework, and the movie never figures out how to make homework exciting. Rami Malek plays Charlie Heller, a CIA code-cracker who is restoring an old Cessna when his wife Sarah is killed in an attack in London. The agency drags its feet, so Charlie leverages its secrets to get field training and hunt down the four people responsible himself. His instructor (Laurence Fishburne) decides Charlie doesn’t have it in him to pull a trigger. The globe-trotting is handsome, from Paris to a glass pool hanging off a Madrid hotel, and a hero who wins with traps and hacks instead of fists is a fresh idea. But Malek plays grief as one long blank stare, and the plot gets sillier the more seriously it takes itself. Critics gave it 61% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it made $96 million worldwide. A 4.4 because a clever setup ends up as an airport paperback. $741.48 says you change every password you own this weekend and lock yourself out of two.

What works: A desk-bound codebreaker who wins with brains instead of brawn is a fresh angle, and the locations are handsome.

What doesn’t: Malek’s grief reads as flat and distant, and the plotting gets more ridiculous as the film takes itself more seriously.

Who it’s for: People who want a watchable spy thriller on a lazy afternoon and won’t fact-check the tradecraft.