Latest news with #JamesHawes
Tom's Guide
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
7 top new movies to stream this week on Prime Video, Hulu, Disney Plus and more (June 10-16)
This week is packed with a bunch of new movies hitting the best streaming services. They include Prime Video's original crime-comedy "Deep Cover," which sees an improv teacher and two of her students pose as hardened criminals to infiltrate London's criminal underworld. There's also the release of "Snow White" on Disney Plus and Rami Malek's "The Amateur" getting a digital streaming release. Hulu and HBO Max will have new movies to watch, too, but the title I'm most intrigued about is "Echo Valley," a new thriller arriving on Apple TV Plus. If you're looking to stream something new this week, I'll be sharing all the top new movies across streaming services. Plus, be sure to check out all the top new TV shows you'll want to binge-watch this week as well. Fresh off a string of intriguing genre projects, Rami Malek stars in 'The Amateur,' a grounded, slow-burn espionage thriller that does things a little differently than your usual spy fare. Directed by James Hawes, this cerebral thriller plays it cool, focusing less on gadgets and globe-trotting and more on grief and obsession. Malek plays a CIA codebreaker devastated by a personal tragedy. When red tape blocks him from getting justice, he takes matters into his own hands by forcing his way into the field and setting off a chain reaction of internal conflict and covert danger. And no, this isn't an action-packed Bond riff. It's a tight, deliberately-paced character study that asks how far someone's willing to go when pushed to the edge. Also starring Rachel Brosnahan, Jon Bernthal, and Laurence Fishburne, 'The Amateur' might not be flashy, but the slow-brewing tension and restrained performances make it a satisfying watch for those who like their thrillers smart and serious. Buy or rent on Amazon from June 10 Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. 'Clown in a Cornfield' tries to lean into the campy slasher vibes its title promises, but despite the blood and greasepaint, it never quite sticks the landing. Based on the cult YA novel by Adam Cesare, the movie follows a group of teens who find themselves stalked by a deranged killer clown called Frendo in the middle of rural America. Sounds like it should be a blast, right? Unfortunately, this one's a real misfire. In a year full of inventive horror flicks, 'Clown in a Cornfield' stands out for all the wrong reasons. The tone is all over the place, the characters are incredibly annoying, and there's just too much cringe humor. It doesn't even manage to hit that sweet spot of being 'so bad it's good.' Still, if you're a slasher completionist, there are a few silver linings: Some of the kills are enjoyably gnarly, and the clown costume design is weirdly fun to look at. Buy or rent on Amazon from June 10 Disney's live-action 'Snow White' finally arrives on Disney Plus, and while it doesn't quite reach the heights of the studio's strongest remakes, it's not without its merits. Directed by Marc Webb and starring Rachel Zegler as the iconic princess, this retelling makes a clear effort to modernize the story with updated themes and some fresh musical choices. However, despite a few visually striking moments and Zegler's natural screen presence, 'Snow White' does struggle to justify its existence. Much of the charm that made the original an enduring classic is nowhere to be found, and it turned out to be far less compelling than the social media uproar might have led you to expect. But for younger viewers or die-hard Disney fans, there's just enough appeal to make it worth a watch. It may not be a classic in the making, but it offers a soft, visually pleasing experience that's easy to put on for a cozy night in. Watch on Disney Plus from June 11 'Deep Cover' is one of Prime Video's more intriguing original releases this year. The premise: a team of improv comedians goes undercover. And based on the trailer, this crime comedy looks like a wild, over-the-top dive into London's offbeat criminal scene with plenty of laughs along the way. Kat (Bryce Dallas Howard) is an improv teacher stuck in a rut and wondering if her big break has passed her by. That changes when a mysterious undercover cop (Sean Bean) presents her with an unexpected opportunity: help him pull off a risky infiltration of London's criminal underworld. Sensing her moment, Kat ropes in two of her most eager students (Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed) to pose as hardened criminals, diving headfirst into a world far beyond the stage. Watch on Prime Video from June 12 'Absolution' quietly dropped in theaters last November, but it finds new life this month as it hits Hulu. Liam Neeson plays a fading mob enforcer battling memory loss and years of regret, trying to make peace with his estranged daughter while dodging the violent fallout of his past. Directed by Hans Petter Moland, 'Absolution' doesn't do anything new, but it leans hard into the noir vibes — bleak lighting and just enough grit to keep you hooked. Neeson does what Neeson does best, growling his way through emotional monologues and brutal fight scenes, even if the material feels a little too familiar. It's not a must-watch, and at times it drags, but there's something satisfying about its stripped-down simplicity. If you're a fan of Neeson's late-career crime roles, this one fits comfortably in the rotation. Watch on Hulu from June 13 I thought I had made a mistake by reading the reviews before watching 'Cleaner,' since I usually avoid doing that. But going into this action-thriller with low expectations actually helped me enjoy it, and I ended up pleasantly surprised. 'Cleaner' centers on Joey (Daisy Ridley), a former soldier turned high-rise window cleaner working on One Canada Square in London. During a gala hosted by a major energy corporation, eco-terrorists seize the building, using sleeping gas to take around 300 hostages. High above the chaos, suspended outside on a glass platform, Joey and her autistic brother accidentally witness the attack and become the building's unlikely lifeline. Don't expect anything groundbreaking when going into this thriller. Unfortunately, it leans a little too heavily on familiar tropes from better movies to truly stand out, but there's still plenty of fun to be had along the way. Watch on HBO Max from June 13 There's just something about a slow-burn psychological thriller with a messy mother-daughter dynamic that always pulls me in, and based on the 'Echo Valley' trailer, this looks like exactly that kind of story. Julianne Moore stars as Kate, a former competitive rider now living a quiet, grief-tinged life training horses in rural Pennsylvania. Things take a sharp turn when her daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney) shows up one night, bloodied and clearly in shock. She says she's done something awful… and that's when the real unraveling begins. Written by 'Mare of Easttown' creator Brad Ingelsby, I'm expecting morally murky choices, emotional gut punches, and characters who don't fit neatly into 'good' or 'bad.' Throw in Domhnall Gleeson as a cryptic figure from Claire's past, and it's even more intriguing. Watch on Apple TV Plus from June 13
NZ Herald
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Amateur says it all: Rami Malek miscast as underdog vigilante
Rami Malik: Dreadful when playing original characters. The Amateur, directed by James Hawes, is out now. Rating out of five: ★★ With its airport novel storytelling and TV movie acting, The Amateur wastes what might have been a neat premise. Rami Malek (an Oscar winner for impersonating Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody but dreadful when playing original
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Amateur' Team on That 'Challenging' Pool Collapse Scene and Transformative Ending
[This story contains major spoilers from which is now playing in theaters.] New fear unlocked. More from The Hollywood Reporter James Hawes Talks 'The Amateur' Genre Swerve and the "Americana Heart" of 'Lanterns' Coachella 2025: The Best Parties and Events During Weekend One (Updating) 'The Valley' Stars Weigh In on Which 'Vanderpump Rules' Cast Members Should Permanently Join Their Show 'Even looking into it, you would never get me into it,' James Hawes, director of The Amateur, told The Hollywood Reporter about that terrifying pool-collapse moment in the film at last week's premiere. During the scene, Rami Malek's character, Charles Heller, a CIA decoder, confronts one of the men involved in the murder of his wife, Sarah (played by Rachel Brosnahan), on top of a pool based in Madrid. As Charles isn't getting the answer he needs about who actually pulled the trigger on his wife, he pulls the trigger on the remote, which shatters the pool's glass floor, and Mishka Blazhic (Marc Rissmann) falls to his death. 'The idea is inspired in the 1981 novel by a giant aquarium with people swimming in it, and so we've taken that and transitioned it and developed it into a skytop pool,' Hawes said. He added how the scene required the team to build 'a life-size section of it in the studio so that we could explode it and drop it.' However, since it was also shot on location, Hawes reiterates that 'It's not just all CGI' and 'there's a fair bit of real effects in there.' The pool, which actually exists in London, at the Embassy Gardens, drew some obstacles for the creative team, such as the constant moving of locations. They also had to secure permission from the Embassy to use drones for the sequence. 'That was our first and second day of shooting,' Dan Wilson, a producer on the film, told THR about the scene. 'For this movie, it was challenging because we have that kind of mix of tricky big set pieces, the pool being the biggest, but also a really kind of heavy location-driven show every single day pretty much we're moving on to the location. … Adding those set pieces like the pool are really complicated, take time to work out. It was tricky but it was a blast to shot that.' However, the scene that the 'actual breaking of the pool that you see where the guy goes down, that was one shot,' Wilson continued. 'We did't want to re-set that.' While the sequence added to Charles' mission of avenging his deceased wife, it's not until the end that Charles gets his real revenge with the attackers — and he didn't need to kill Schiller to do so. Instead, he sets them up to be arrested. Charles' growth throughout the film begins with him as a 'geek' who is 'scared to go behind the wheel of his own car,' Hawes described. But through the skills he's gained, at the end of the film, 'he takes to the skies.' 'He's free. He's become a new man. That is a kind of liberation,' Hawes continued. 'It's the kind of justice and it's what his wife would have wanted for him.' While spy thriller's have been all the rage in recent years with Black Doves, The Day of the Jackal and Slow Horses (which Hawes also directed), Hawes spoke about why he believes the genre sparks such an interest with audiences. 'Especially in unstable times, people look to see what happens. 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,' he said. 'Therefore, 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.' The Amateur is now out in theaters. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked 20 Times the Oscars Got It Wrong The Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time
The Guardian
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Amateur review – Rami Malek is a brilliant code cracker lacking in charisma
James Hawes, who directed the entire first season of Slow Horses, clearly knows his way around the spy genre. Which is why this disjointed thriller about a brilliant CIA code cracker turned elite operative (Rami Malek) delivers at least some pacy thrills and globe-hopping intrigue, despite numerous issues with the screenplay, structure and casting. As Charlie Heller, Malek is one of the casting question marks. Heller possesses the kind of tech wizardry that goes beyond a credible skill set and starts to feel a bit like magic. After the death of his wife in a terrorist attack, he's lured out from behind his computer screens to do the job that his CIA colleagues seem unable or unwilling to perform: the systematic killing of everyone involved in his wife's murder. It's a promising pulpy premise, but Malek feels too wan and underpowered in the charisma department to be carrying an action flick. Two curiously unmoored scenes featuring Jon Bernthal in tantalising badass spy mode suggest a brutal hit job during the edit. In UK and Irish cinemas
Arab News
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Rami Malek: ‘I consider myself fortunate to have shared the screen with these actors'
DUBAI: Oscar-winner Rami Malek is expanding his role behind the camera with 'The Amateur,' now showing in cinemas across the Middle East. Teaming up with British director James Hawes and an ensemble cast, Malek – as lead star and producer – crafts a modern spy thriller that blends classic genre tension with timely urgency, and a cerebral update. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @ 'I just love to see things from beginning to end all the way through — every element,' Malek tells Arab News. 'I hope it's not a perfectionist aspect, but I've always found myself remembering moments on certain cameras, certain lenses on other actors that I would talk to the directors about, or in post-production and wanting to make sure we get the best of the best. I heard about a lot of actors who come into the editing suite, and I thought, 'How could I do that without having to do it in this kind of sneaky manner?' 'And so (this was) the way to do that. And it was nice to see this develop, to work on the script with Dan Wilson and, of course, the great (producer) Hutch Parker, and James Hawes, and sit down day in and day out and try to make this feel as authentic and unique as possible from beginning to end.' Malek stars as Charlie Heller, a brilliant but introverted CIA codebreaker whose life is upended when his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed in a terrorist attack in London. When the agency refuses to act, Heller sets off on a dangerous, global pursuit of those responsible — using his intelligence skills to outwit enemies and seek justice on his own terms. Apart from Malek and Brosnahan, the film also stars Laurence Fishburne, Caitriona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, and Emmy winner Julianne Nicholson, among others. 'I got to galvanize some of my favorite actors — people I've always wanted to work with — in this ensemble,' Malek says. 'I think everyone recognizes them as people working at the top of their game. Every actor in this film is someone I consider myself fortunate to have shared the screen with. And yeah, I'm very proud of that. It's quite the feat.' Balfe — the Irish actress and model known for her role as Claire Fraser in the historical drama 'Outlander' — plays Inquiline Davies, Heller's asset, a hacker with whom he communicates via secure messages online. 'Rami is amazing. I have known him socially for many years, but I always wanted to be able to work with him. And so when this project came along, I was so excited to be able to get that opportunity,' said Balfe. 'And he was an incredible producer as well. We had long, long days shooting, and he's in practically every scene of the movie. And yet he would go home and watch the rushes from the day before, and he'd have his notes when he came in the next day about what was great, or maybe things that were missed, or script changes. It was a lot on his shoulders, but he was brilliant and very generous with his time. And very welcoming and kind to everybody too, which is so important.' Balfe also revealed that, despite the time constraints of shooting a movie across multiple countries, 'everybody was having so much fun' on set. 'Even though it was a very intense shoot and people were under real time pressure, it was such a lovely group of people to work with,' she says. 'That was the best thing.' British director Hawes is no stranger to the world of espionage drama, having worked on the acclaimed UK spy series 'Slow Horses.' 'I'd been able to play in that world,' Hawes says. 'Those are the kinds of films I'm drawn to — moody, atmospheric, but rooted in realism.' While 'The Amateur' nods to classic spy thrillers, Hawes aimed to update the genre for today's world. One major change was relocating key scenes from Prague — 'a city more known for beer bikes than Cold War intrigue' — to Istanbul, which he felt offered an urgent, unpredictable energy. 'We wanted it to feel contemporary — not just in the politics, but in the tech, the pacing, the stakes,' he says. 'Hopefully, it still carries the soul of those older stories, but in a way that speaks to now.'
