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The Recruit
A brilliant CIA trainee must prove his worth at the Farm, the agency's secret training grounds, where he learns to watch his back and trust no one.
Release : | 2003 |
Rating : | 6.6 |
Studio : | Birnbaum/Barber Productions, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Assistant Art Director, |
Cast : | Colin Farrell Al Pacino Bridget Moynahan Gabriel Macht Karl Pruner |
Genre : | Action Thriller |
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Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Pretty bad film. Predictable plot line, obvious from the beginning. Sorry I wasted my time even though Colin Farrell was nice to look at. I'm surprised Al Pacino agreed to do this movie. He is much better than he showed in the movie. Maybe it was terrible directing or maybe a poor script. It's hard to say; but now I know why I had never heard of it. Thank god I didn't have to pay to see it. Lol
The Recruit is a CIA thriller that is very entertaining despite the whole "been there, done that" saying. Despite not trying to think about the film, I was able to predict what was going to happen from like a mile away. That being said, this is still rather entertaining and an above-average spy thriller thanks to great acting and a strong screenplay.Roger Donaldson's film takes us into the CIA as senior instructor Walter Burke recruits a young MIT computer-programmer named James Clayton to take part in testing to join the CIA. Once he joins the CIA, he is tasked to root out a mole.The acting is pretty darn good. Al Pacino is such a prestigious actor and I was a little surprised to see him in a film like this. Not his best role, but still is very effective. The young Colin Farrell does a good job in his role as well.Overall, The Recruit is your average spy thriller but it does a good job on setting up the premise. Learning how to be a member of the CIA is hard and the film shows it. It's a very interesting and suspenseful film, but I feel like the ending could have been better. The ending just seemed a little too ordinary. But on a whole, a solid film. I rate this film 8/10.
A spy movie about secrets and lies inside the C.I.A. Washington: Mr Walter Burke (Al Pacino) serving C.I.A. as a recruiter for 25 years needs someone smart and with knowledge about computer programs. James Douglas Clayton is the perfect guy. Determined to find out the true story about the tragic end of his father, James accept to be recruit under Mr Burke who seems to know a lot regarding Clayton's father. During the training he meets Leyla Moore (Bridget Moyanahan) fellow student who will be not just a college mate... nothing is what it seems. It may be not one of the most known movies of Al Pacino but his performance is always worth seeing. Pacino's character goes well in pair with young movie star Colin Farrell. The only negative point that you might find is the 'CIA movie stereotype' which was repeated many times in cinematography.
I'm going to jump right to the chase in this review, so SPOILER ALERT! The ending left me with nagging questions. Supposedly, James Clayton was born to be a spook (it's in his blood), so how come he can't tell a gun loaded with blanks from one loaded with real bullets. He even checked the magazine. We have to assume he knows what real bullets look like, or what the kick from real bullets feels like when he pulls the trigger. And if his instinct is so utterly perfect, why wouldn't have have known that the gun was empty by the final scene and thwarted Burke's attempt to commit suicide by "cop?" We all know that the keener spooks, cops, and detectives count the shots. They've been doing it for years (at least in Hollywood).But the overall hole in the plot was: why was Clayton even given the assignment by Burke in the first place if all Burke wanted was the "Ice Nine" program code? He'd convinced Layla and Zack to pull off the theft of the code so why on earth would he need to have Clayton stop them? Every reason I've come up to explain this "intrigue" ends in the conclusion that he'd have to kill everyone involved anyway to get away with the caper in the end.As far as those who've said that the plot was too convoluted with too many twists and turns, well, this is the world of espionage and as the movie stated, nothing is what it seems. However, as a person with critical thinking ability, I discerned that too much was either overlooked or ignored, or the producers just went with the script hoping viewers would buy a "just OK" movie.I had been planning on giving it an 8 up until the last 10 minutes and then everything just went south for me. The Jason Borne series puts this type of project to shame.