The Amateur

In this film that has so much stuffed into a basic tale of revenge that it can barely give time to anything, everything is almost as wispy as vapour, not the smoke-and-mirrors look director James Hawes is going for.

Slow Horses director James Hawes's espionage yarn is pacy and slick but badly miscast, with Malek feeling too wan and underpowered in the charisma department to be carrying an action flick.

The truth is that we don’t notice things like that in the name of entertainment. We ride with Jason Bourne and James Bond because they’re charismatic enough to force us to do so. That is just not the case here, leaving us to question every inane twist and turn. And wonder why no one can turn on a light.

This decent spy thriller stars the erstwhile Mr. Robot as a CIA cryptographer who doesn't need a gun to avenge his murdered wife.

Rami Malek is a mad-as-hell secret-agent geek brainiac in a watchable but frictionless revenge film that pours a lot of other movies into the blender.