Rami Malek’s latest movie, The Amateur, is actually a remake of a classic spy movie that legendary film critic Roger Ebert once called “laughable.” Inspired by the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell, the renowned author of The Company, The Amateur was made into a film very quickly after the book’s initial release. Even though Ebert, who co-hosted the longstanding At The Movies talk show with Gene Siskel for decades, found the film “laughable”, there is nothing funny about The Amateur’s premise. Based on Ebert’s two-star review of the film, he was laughing for all the wrong reasons.
2025’s The Amateur, which will be released in theaters on April 11, is directed by James Hawes, best known for his work on Apple’s acclaimed dark comedy spy series Slow Horses and his feature film debut, One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins. Reviews for The Amateur have been mostly positive out of the gate, resulting in a solid 68% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes paired with a promising 87% audience score at the time of writing. The Amateur hopes to perform well in a compeтιтive opening weekend at the box office against Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Warfare and Christopher Landon’s Drop.
The Amateur’s Book Previously Became A Movie In 1982
It Was A Box Office Flop & Was Mostly Forgotten About
The Amateur began as a book that was quickly adapted into a feature film starring John Savage, Marthe Keller, and the late Christopher Plummer. Screenwriter Diana Maddox wrote the adapted screenplay and director Charles Jarrott brought it from page to screen. Savage, best known for his roles in classic war films such as The Thin Red Line and The Deer Hunter, played the protagonist Charles Heller, who Malek plays in the 2025 remake. Interestingly, Heller is one of the few, if not the only, original movie characters brought into the remake. Plummer’s Professor Lakos is not billed in the new version.
The original version of The Amateur was released in Canada in December 1981, followed by a U.S. theatrical release in early 1982. The film grossed roughly $6.9 million worldwide against an estimated production budget of $10 million, making it a box office failure. The classic film has an audience score of 59% on Rotten Tomatoes based on a handful of user reviews and simply doesn’t seem to be very popular or seen. The book, by comparison, is generally more well-received. Ebert, however, undoubtedly saw the 1982 film and was less than impressed by the adaptation.
Roger Ebert Gave 1982’s The Amateur A Negative Review
He Felt That Savage Was Miscast & The Plot Was Too Routine
Ebert has one of the oldest documented reviews of 1982’s The Amateur available to read online. Ebert admits at the top of his 2-star review that The Amateur begins with a promising opening act before fizzling out, saying, “After earning our attention with its understated, powerful opening, the movie develops into a routine, even laughable, spy thriller.”
He critiques John Savage’s leading man performance, suggesting that while he was good in previous films, he may have been miscast in this one. “He plays a man who is consumed by a burning vengeance, yet plays him with so many hesitations, reservations and uncertainties that the movie becomes a mission in search of a man.“
Ebert threw Savage a lifesaver by also critiquing the uninspired and underdeveloped nature of the espionage plot. “The Amateur falls because it chooses to linger on the ridiculous details of this plot, getting more and more deeply mired in implausibility.” He also found the decision-making skills, or lack thereof, of Heller to be ridiculous for a revenge-stricken CIA ᴀsset, writing, “This guy would be too incompetent to clear customs. He wanders about Prague looking like a tourist on a leash.” Hopefully, Malek’s version of the character will have a bit more apтιтude, even though he is an unlikely hero.
What Critics Are Saying About Rami Malek’s The Amateur
It’s Received Mostly Positive Yet Slightly Underwhelming Reviews
Roger Ebert isn’t around to share his thoughts on The Amateur remake but plenty of modern critics have already expressed their feedback. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter writes in his slightly positive review, “While I love a brawny Jason Statham beatdown, it’s a welcome change to see a revenge thriller in which the hero uses brains instead of fists or guns.” Similarly, David Ehelich of IndieWire gave The Amateur a hardly-pᴀssing grade of C+, writing in his review, “An aggressively competent spy thriller that has less use for logic than its lead actor does for his smile.”
Ultimately, critics mostly enjoy 2025’s The Amateur but don’t seem to be very blown away.
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com somewhat perfectly gives The Amateur a 1.5-star review, even lower than Ebert’s rating of the original. Tallerico calls it “a film in which an ordinary guy becomes an international murderer, and yet it has no heartbeat, taking a clinical approach to chaos.” Ultimately, critics mostly enjoy 2025’s The Amateur but don’t seem to be very blown away.
