Movie Title: The Recruit

Movie Title: The Recruit
Rating: 4
Reviewed By: Robin McFetridge

Review:

What would you do if some stranger shows you a couple magic tricks, tells you a little information about yourself and then tries to recruit you for the CIA? Do they even recruit people for the CIA? Well this young ingénue James Clayton (Colin Farrell, Minority Report) falls for the recruit lines hook, line, & sinker. The Recruit stars Al Pacino (Insomnia) as Walter Burke as a trainer/recruiter for the CIA who claims to have a scary ability for spotting talent. The problem is, there is not much of a story, not any real action and the writing by Roger Towne and Kurt Wimmer is so weak that I had the entire plot figured out not long into the film. If you pay attention to the line they feed you over and over again, “nothing is as it seems” you can guess every scene, every situation and every outcome. Not much fun, if a thriller can’t give you the slightest hint of suspense or surprise.

This movie starts out simple enough. A few newspaper headings that let you read a partial heading and move on. Then it cuts to James asleep and his phone ringing. Nope not the CIA yet, just his buddies trying to find him. Seems old James is very late to a tech show where a Dell rep (Ron Lea, A Map of the World) is going to see his latest software invention, Spartacus. The rep is impressed and says he will be in touch. Also at the show was Walter Burke, tailing his young protégé. Burke shows up at the bar James tends and gives him the crystal ball into his future when the Dell rep calls to meet for drinks and that is his whole life. With all his talent for computers and programming he will burn out at a dead-end job. He has something better, a whirl with the CIA, just like his father. Remember back in the beginning, the newspaper articles? They were about James’s father dying in a plane crash back in 1990. He was a Shell Oil rep and did his job overseas. Well now he has the attention of James who has been looking for his father or information on his father. James takes Burke’s offer to join the CIA and heads to the farm in Langley. While there he develops an interest in another candidate, Layla (Bridget Moynahan, Serendipity) and they get paired up and squared against each other. Everything is a test, nothing is as it seems, remember that because they tell you this over and over again. There is a mole in The Agency and Burke enlists James to help identify the traitor.

Well I haven’t told you anything, but if you were listening you have already discovered the plot, the antagonist and the climax. So why waste your time and money on this movie? Well Colin is remarkable in his role and Pacino never disappoints, so just seeing their performance is reason enough to watch a film that doesn’t have explosions, gun fire and any real action scenes. Also in this movie were Grabriel Macht (Behind Enemy Lines), Kenneth Mitchell, Brian Rhodes, Eugene Lipinski, Janet Bailey, and Karl Pruner. Since I didn’t get to see either Pacino’s or Farrell’s butt, no explosions, high body count or any action to speak of, I rate The Recruit a four on the About-Movies.com scale. I would have given it a lower score, but Pacino can act and Colin is no slouch either.

Over and out.