The Amateur (2025) is a thrilling spy adventure about a shy school teacher, Henry, who gets pulled into a wild mission when his secret-agent wife goes missing! With zero training but lots of heart ❤️, he uses his teacher skills—like patience and pop quizzes—to outsmart bad guys. Can this unlikely hero save the day?
The Amateur
Runtime: 2 Hours 3 Minutes
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Action and Drama
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: 11 April 2025
Original Language: English
Production House: Hutch Parker Entertainment
Distributor: 20th Century Studios
About:
Review:
"The Amateur" Review: When a Regular Guy Plays Spy – With Hilarious Results!
Picture this: a middle-school language teacher suddenly forced to become a secret agent. That's The Amateur in a nutshell – a spy comedy that proves you don't need fancy gadgets to be a hero, just quick thinking and maybe a little dumb luck.
The Story: From Classroom to Chaos
Mr. Benji Coleman (Rami Malek) is your average French teacher who:
• Grades papers in coffee-stained cardigans
• Gets excited about verb conjugations
• Has never thrown a punch in his life
But when his CIA-agent brother goes missing during a mission, Benji uses his one special skill – reading people's micro-expressions (those tiny face twitches no one else notices) – to track him down. Suddenly, this teacher who can't even control his 7th period class is:
• Sneaking into villain's lairs (with a backpack full of graded quizzes)
• Disguising himself as a waiter (and spilling soup everywhere)
• Trying to remember if you're supposed to shake or kiss a spy's hand
What Makes It Fun?
- The Worst Spy Ever
- Forgets which button activates his hidden microphone
- Accidentally texts the villain emojis instead of threats
- Uses classroom management techniques on bad guys ("I'll wait for silence...")
- Unexpected Skills Save the Day
- His "teacher voice" stops armed guards in their tracks
- Correcting someone's grammar distracts them at key moments
- A lesson about French bread becomes vital spy intel
- Odd Couple Team-Up
- Real spy Natasha (Florence Pugh) constantly facepalms at Benji's mistakes
- Their escape plans involve school fire drill strategies
- She teaches him to fight; he teaches her patience
Characters You'll Love
• Benji: You'll cheer for this underdog who worries about missing parent-teacher conferences during gunfights
• Natasha: Tough as nails but secretly impressed by Benji's creative solutions
• The Villain: A tech billionaire who's terrified of middle-schoolers (for good reason!)
Gentle Action (No Scary Stuff!)
• Chase scenes involve bicycles and electric scooters
• "Fights" look more like awkward dancing
• The only blood is from Benji's frequent paper cuts
Big Laughs
• Benji trying to look tough while wearing his "World's Best Teacher" mug
• Using a protractor as a throwing star (it pings off a wall)
• The villain's secret base having a "quiet zone" library sign Benji won't stop enforcing
Sweet Lessons
- Different Kinds of Smart Matter
Book smarts can be just as powerful as spy training - Anyone Can Be Brave
Even if your knees shake the whole time - Teachers Are Secret Superheroes
(But we knew that already!)
Final Thought: The Amateur proves you don't need a black belt to be a hero – sometimes a red grading pen and a kind heart are the best weapons. As Benji says to his students: "Being brave isn't about not being scared. It's about being scared and doing it anyway... preferably with proper grammar." Now if you'll excuse me, I need to reconsider my teacher's ordinary stapler – maybe it's a secret gadget after all...
P.S. Watch through the credits for a hilarious scene of Benji leading spy trainees in a grammar lesson!
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James Hawes
(Director)
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Rami Malek
as Heller
(Producer)
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Rachel Brosnahan
as Sarah
(Actor)
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Laurence Fishburne
as Henderson
(Actor)
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Caitriona Balfe
as Inquiline
(Actor)
Jon Bernthal
as The Bear
(Actor)
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Michael Stuhlbarg
as Schiller
(Actor)
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Julianne Nicholson
as Director O'Brien
(Actor)
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Adrian Martinez
as Carlos
(Actor)
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Danny Sapani
as Caleb
(Actor)
Holt McCallany
as Director Moore
(Actor)
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Joseph Millson
as Ellish
(Actor)
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Ken Nolan
(Screenwriter)
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Gary Spinelli
(Screenwriter)
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Hutch Parker
(Producer)
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Dan Wilson
(Producer)
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Joel B. Michaels
(Producer)
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Jonathan Hook
(Executive Producer)
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Martin Ruhe
(Cinematographer)
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Jonathan Amos
(Film Editing)
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Volker Bertelmann
(Original Music)
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Maria Djurkovic
(Production Design)
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Suzie Harman
(Costume Design)
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Martin Ware
(Casting)
