Film Review - The Amateur (2025)

The Amateur stars Rami Malek as a CIA Analyst Charlie who is happily married to his wife (Rachel Brosnahan soon to be Lois Lane in James Gunn’s Superman) when she goes to London for a business trip but sadly she is killed in a terrorist attack there and Charlie wants to find the people responsible for her death.

The Amateur is a good old fashioned steak, mash and peas style thriller that I liked for the most part and the first reason why is Rami Malek, he has always been a good actor and here is no exception as the determination to avenge his wife’s murder begins to show more and more as he devises more and more ingenious ways to hunt down the killers and evade the CIA at the same time begins to show more and more as the film goes on, Lawrence Fishburne is also very fun in a supporting role and its good to see him as well.

As for Rachel Brosnahan, watching her in this movie I thought to myself “She is going to be a damn good Lois Lane” (though whether she will be as good as the late great Margot Kidder remains to be seen) as she was very good in her small role here and had a lot of that sass and quickness and heart that you want in a Lois Lane portrayal, I also enjoyed seeing Catriona Balfe in a small role as well.

And so that was the Amateur and it’s a good solid thriller anchored by a good cast, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Novocaine (2025)

Novocaine stars Jack Quaid as Nathan Caine, an Assistant Manager in a San Diego bank who has a rare genetic disorder where he can literally feel no pain but he manages to fall in love with one of the girls Sherry (Amber Midthunder) who works at the bank but one day the Bank is robbed an Sherry is kidnapped so Nathan has to put his “I feel no pain” disability to good use to rescue her.

Novocaine is definitely one of my favourite films of 2025 so far and the first reason why is due to the unique storytelling concept of the film, sure you’ve had characters like Wolverine in the X-Men where they heal up after getting injured but Nathan isn’t like that this is a real disability he has and for better or worse he has to use it to his advantage to get the girl back and it makes for some very fun action scenes that make good use of his condition and the restricted rating the film has.

Secondly is Jack Quaid and this is the performance that should make him a movie star, at times you can see the sweetness from his mother Meg Ryan in his eyes and his smile while also being able to be sarcastic like his father Dennis Quaid could be in some of his roles and watching him here do these crazy action scenes while also being a romantic lead was very effective and he has good chemistry with Midthunder.

Speaking of Midthunder (who we first saw in 2022’s Predator film Prey) she is very good here as well and I really enjoyed seeing her again after she was memorable in that film as well and I really enjoyed her scenes with Quaid hopefully they get a crack at a proper rom com together some day.

But there are a couple of problems I have with this movie and first of those is the villains, don’t get me wrong their perfectly serviceable but I wish they were more memorable like you saw in movies like Die Hard or the Indiana Jones films or the best of the James Bond films but that has been a long documented failing on my part and Ray Nicholson is perfectly solid as the main bad guy Simon but he isn’t as memorable as he could’ve been.

And secondly I wish that the disability aspect of Nathan’s character had been played up more in the first act before he meets Sherry, sure he tells her about some of the pluses and minuses of his condition but I wish we saw more of it before Sherry comes into his life and accepts him for who he is and not some ideal version of what he could be as the brief scenes we did get really appealed to me and I wish we saw more of them.

That said however Novocaine is great fun, 3 and a half out of 5.