1 Year Later, Prime Video's Forgotten Spy Thriller Is Officially Finding New Life
Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with extensive experience. Collier, or "CJ" to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy, and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. With his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he's tackled a wide variety of articles.
The Streaming Wars might finally have a clear winner: Prime Video. A new report from TheWrap shows that Prime Video has overtaken Netflix as the most in-demand streaming service, thanks to its ever-growing library of movies. Some of those movies are current blockbuster hits, like Project Hail Mary; others, such as Travis Knight's Masters of the Universe, were overlooked in theaters.A spy thriller from last year falls into that latter camp and is climbing the streaming charts.
That movie is The Amateur, the spy thriller starring Rami Malek, Jon Bernthal, and Laurence Fishburne. The Amateur has been a surprise hit for Prime Video, as it has stayed in the streamer's Top 10 throughout August. That success mirrors The Amateur's box office run, where it grossed nearly $100 million on a $60 million budget. It holds an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the rare movie that's enjoyed a small but steady audience, regardless of screen size. Anyone who has watched The Amateur wouldn't be surprised, as it puts a unique twist on the spy genre.
'The Amateur' Isn't A Typical Spy Thriller
Based on the novel by Robert Littell, The Amateur tells the story of Charlie Heller (Malek), a CIA cryptographer, who stumbles upon a conspiracy involving his boss, Alex Moore (Holt McCallany). Around the same time, he learns that his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), was murdered by terrorists. After identifying the terrorists, Heller uses a mix of methods to track them down and kill them in revenge. His actions eventually put him in conflict with the CIA, and the agency sends his handler, Robert Henderson (Fishburne), to eliminate him. What follows is a tense game of cat and mouse as Charlie races to stay one step ahead of his pursuers, including Henderson.
The Amateur stands out from other spy thrillers, since its protagonist uses his brains rather than his brawn throughout the story. Charlie isn't a hardened killer like James Bond or Jason Bourne; in a scene where Henderson presses him to pick up a gun and shoot, he can't do it. That doesn't make him any less dangerous, though, as he winds up cornering one of the terrorists in a pool and rigs said pool to explode, causing a cascade of water and glass that results in a fatal end for his victim. The more cerebral approach of The Amateur will keep viewers on their toes, as they never know what move Charlie's going to make next. It also means that Malek gets to give off a layered performance, especially when sharing the screen with talent like Fishburne and Bernthal.
The Director of 'The Amateur' Has Helmed Some of the Best Modern Television Shows
The Amateur owes its tense pacing and shadow-soaked atmosphere to director James Hawes, whose work might be familiar to television viewers. Hawes is no stranger to spy thrillers, having directed episodes of Apple TV's Slow Horses and the BBC series Undercover. Like The Amateur, these series often play with spy tropes and deliver stories the audience doesn't expect. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hawes offered a surprising explanation for why he feels the spy genre continues to thrive in movies.
"Most spy thrillers turn the world upside down. They invert the world, and they throw our hero into a world that should be normal but where everything black is turned white and vice versa...it’s something about the world we live in. We love the idea of a single hero thrown into that kind of danger and having to cope with it."
Hawes' latest television series is a far cry from the spy genre, as he recently directed the first two episodes of Lanterns. Lanterns quickly gained an audience due to its mix of neo-Noir elements and nods to the Green Lantern mythos, resulting in a series that longtime comic book fans and crime aficionados can enjoy. If you're looking for a movie that will change your perspective on the spy genre, The Amateur is worth a watch.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.