"Trust. Betrayal. Deception. In the C.I.A. nothing is what it seems."

The Recruit (2003): 4/10

Poster art from impawards.com
Roger Donaldson’s The Recruit is a wannabe techno-thriller that, strangely enough, doesn’t deliver the techno or the thriller. In fact, you’ll be wishing you had ANY technology so you won’t be bored while watching this two-hour-long mind-flip (and I don’t mean that in a good way).

Colin Farrell is James Clayton, a good-looking, laid-back, popular computer geek (as I’m sure there are many of in this world). He’s being scouted out by Walter Burke (Al Pacino) to be recruited into the CIA. He accepts, and soon has to help Burke find a mole that’s evident even before viewing the movie.

Long and incoherent, The Recruit is not a movie to just mindlessly watch. The ending ten minutes are full of confusing things, you just stop caring. I actually did that around halfway through. I just didn’t understand it, and, looking back, don’t understand how anyone could. It wasn’t thrilling, which, considering it’s a thriller, is a major downer. There was only around one good action scene, in the train station, and even that wasn’t as played out as it should have.

Pacino was quite good, but Farrell didn’t put in as quality as a job as Minority Report. He better redeem himself for Phone Booth.

One of the only good points was the technical music that I always enjoy. Even though one of the senses was caressed, the opening credit sequence destroyed my eyesight. I didn’t bring my notebook, so I don’t remember much more, but I wouldn’t recommend The Recruit at all, since it’s a waste of $8.00 or however much your theater charges, and its thudding predictability makes it worthless to see.

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexuality, and language.

Review Date: February 28, 2003