Movie Review: The Amateur

The new movie "The Amateur" is a good example of a great idea for an action movie with bad execution.

A married couple Heller, played by Rami Malek and Sarah Rachel Brosnahan are separated when Sarah is on a business trip in London. Heller is a computer expert who works for the CIA. After Heller's wife tragically is killed in a Terrorist attack, he decides to take matters into his own hands, even though he has no skills as a CIA field agent. Heller is trained privately by an x-agent Henderson, played by Laurence Fishburne, who determines that Heller does not have the physical strength, is not a killer and because of this, he should not continue on his quest for justice.

The problem with this film is that there are no connections between scenes, no buildup or explanation as to why something is happening, or why Heller is motivated to do what he is doing. Characters pop in and out of nowhere, and we all wonder how a screenplay this poorly written was greenlighted.

Other characters in this film include a CIA agent named "The Bear" played by Jon Bernthal, with a small and mostly unnecessary role, and Holt McCallany as CIA Director Moore. This film represents another very good opportunity lost because nobody realized that the screenplay needed about five more rewrites and moved into production too soon probably because of budget cuts.

This time around I 100% agree with the very low 61% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and do not recommend this movie.