AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Two new films, two sets of American operatives in harm's way. "The Amateur," a spy thriller starring Rami Malek, goes about his mission with Hollywood flare. "Warfare," a battlefield drama set in Iraq, is less flashy. Critic Bob Mondello says, as is often the case, less is more.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: "The Amateur" wants to be a Bourne movie.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE AMATEUR")
RAMI MALEK: (As Charles Heller) I want mission-specific training, cash and a new identity.
HOLT MCCALLANY: (As Frank Moore) Have you lost your mind?
MONDELLO: It stars Rami Malek as an intelligence analyst who can decrypt a message in seconds, but has never so much as handled a gun, except now he has a reason.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE AMATEUR")
MALEK: (As Charles Heller) I'm want to find and kill the people who murdered my wife.
MCCALLANY: (As Frank Moore) I don't think you could beat a 90-year-old nun in an arm wrestling match.
MONDELLO: OK, not kind, but also not wrong. Charlie's got to be the nerdiest guy in the CIA. Still, nerds know stuff, like how to get the upper hand when an assassin is in a glass-bottomed swimming pool suspended between skyscrapers. I mean, that can't come up often, but Charlie's ready when it does.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE AMATEUR")
MALEK: (As Charles Heller) This is a remote that controls a device that's been decompressing the air between the sheets of glass beneath you. If I trigger it, the glass will shatter. So tell me where he is, or swim very fast.
MONDELLO: There are three other killers Charlie's going after and a corrupt CIA old-timer he really should be going after. And Laurence Fishburne is on hand to supply world-weary common sense as required.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE AMATEUR")
LAURENCE FISHBURNE: (As Robert Henderson) Maybe you all misjudged this individual.
MONDELLO: Filmmaker James Hawes keeps "The Amateur" clicking along competently, if not plausibly, through loose ends, loose characters and some blather from the head of the CIA about ethics, which sounds awfully precious in the current political environment. Quite apart from making you think, come on, guys, have you heard of the CIA?
Nobody talks ethics in "Warfare," which is set in Iraq in 2006. The film's not about ideologies, politics or even characters, really. It's about survival in a world where the presence and sound of guns is everywhere.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WARFARE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Oh, he's back.
MONDELLO: We're in a covert sniper surveillance unit that's commandeered a residential building, peering with the soldiers through their gun sights.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WARFARE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) That's the fourth [expletive] time he's done that.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Is he peeking or probing?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Peeking with serious intent to probe.
MONDELLO: With the terrified residents huddled in a bedroom, the Americans try to interpret what they're seeing on the street.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WARFARE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Alpha 2, we might have guys starting to move on our position.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Copy. We're getting a build-up of activity here, too.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) Yeah, I definitely see weapons at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character) Yeah, we have definite massing.
MONDELLO: If this sounds authentic, it's because it's reconstructed from the memories of men who were there in real life. Alex Garland, codirecting with former Navy Seal Ray Mendoza, is recreating an actual mission in real time, with immersive detail. And even before the first shots are fired...
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
MONDELLO: ...It's intense.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINE GUN FIRING)
MONDELLO: Garland is the director of "Civil War," last year's portrait of an America divided under a blustering third-term president. Mendoza was a consultant for the battle scenes on that film, and while consulting, he told Garland about coming under fire in Iraq. Augmented with the recollections of his comrades, his memories are the basis for this project.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WARFARE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character) We have severely wounded.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #8: (As character) Who's the severely wounded?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character) It's not you.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #8: (As character) Is it me?
MONDELLO: The camera rarely moves more than a few feet from the men we're watching...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WARFARE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #9: (As character) We coming to you or you coming to us?
MONDELLO: ...Except for a moment when it goes out to the street to show what it means when they call for a show of force, and a jet fighter flies terrifyingly low...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WARFARE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #10: (As character) Show of force in about 30 seconds.
MONDELLO: ...Sending a shock wave scudding through the streets.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOCK WAVE BLASTING)
MONDELLO: The film - so persuasive, I forgot at times I wasn't watching a documentary - is designed to put you in the hell these men experienced.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WARFARE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #11: (As character) Where are you guys?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #12: (As character) Look for the blood and the smoke.
MONDELLO: And if the absence of context is arguably a flaw, you get that in the heat of battle, global politics would not have been on anyone's mind.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WARFARE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #13: (As character) We have enemy on our building and all surrounding buildings.
MONDELLO: The film's not really like most Hollywood movies - no talk of heroism, courage, sacrifice. "Warfare" is just warfare, calibrated as a cinematic show of force.
I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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