Le nouvel agent

The Recruit has too many sub-plots and twists and turns. Pacino takes on the role as a CIA recruiter with a vengeance. Colin Farrell is spectacular as the recruit. His CIA girl friend (Moynahan) is extremely sexy, but Farrell manages to steal the scenes from her, one by one. It's directed with plenty of drama, mystery and intrigue. But there's something wrong with the movie? Could it be the studio? Or the writing? Don't know, I wasn't there. What I do know is that it's a great idea, but someone along the way messed it up big-time. If I was Pacino, I would have final say on the script and final cut. He must have been fuming. To make him do a Scarface sort of thing was absolutely pathetic. When the movie was over I felt cheated. Out of my DVD money and out of a good ending.

For some reason or another, this movie wasn't really accepted by the majority of the audience and I wonder why that is. I'm not saying it is a masterpiece, but this is still a movie with Al Pacino and Colin Farrell. Both actors and especially Al Pacino are normally good for some decent fun and some good acting and it wasn't any different in this movie.

This movie tells us the story of James Clayton (Colin Farrell), a young computer graduate who is recruited by Walter Burke (Al Pacino) to work for the CIA. Despite Clayton's unconventional attitude, Burke sees in him one of the best agents the CIA can wish for. That's why he'll guide Clayton through the difficult training courses and helps him to quickly rise through the ranks. Once the training period is over Clayton gets a special assignment, he'll have to detect a mole that has infiltrated in the CIA. But will his training be enough and was Burke right about the fact that this may well be the best agent ever?

This movie is perhaps not the most original thriller ever, but it delivers everything that it is asked for. It's a good movie, full of suspense and decent acting. And for those who are interested: it also gives an insight on how the trainees are recruited, how they are prepared to be a spy and what they learn to survive. I don't know anything about it, but I guess it all looked pretty accurate. Anyway, I enjoyed watching this movie and I give it a 7.5/10.

'The Recruit,' is an MIT whiz kid James Clayton (Colin Farrel). His recruiter is CIA guy Walter Burke (Al Pacino). He is the head guy at the CIA training centre, 'the farm,' which Clayton and fellow trainee/love interest Layla Moore (Bridget Moynahan) go through.

The movie is good enough to watch but is not entirely riveting. You see, we are told 'everything is a test!!!' and this lurks behind every plot turn that Clayton goes through. Are his problems for real? Or is it just another training test by Burke? If this sounds like tense stuff, it is and it isn't. Sometimes it will hook you in but other times it is just annoying - the feeling that he's not in any real danger but its all just a drill. Interest goes up and down until after the 'farm' training stuff. At this point, the story's focus gets much sharper and things become more consistently interesting, with a few cool twists. This is quite a fair way into the movie, though.

I love Pacino, and was quite interested in whether Farrell could match him after the promise he showed in 'Minority Report.' Well he does. In fact, everyone holds their own and the combined chemistry boosts the film. Pacino is steady throughout and doesn't do his unrestrained thing until the end (its still worth the wait!). Also, Moynahan is thankfully given more to do than just be the obligatory chick/eye-candy.

Overall, decent enough to give a whirl. It's better than most of the other spy / thriller stuff out there.

In "The Recruit" a computer whiz (Farrell) is recruited to be trained as a CIA operative and ends up playing cat and mole inside the agency while keeping the audience wondering who's "cat" and who's "mole". The film is a slick shoot with a convoluted plot which tries to work the notion that in the spy game no one can trust anyone. Unfortunately the film is dumbed down, full of plot holes and obvious contrivances, doesn't work well in the human drama, and relies too much on techno-junk and gobbledygook computer hacking spy stuff. Though "The Recruit" isn't much of a movie given the talent behind it, it is busy and keeps you guessing all the way to the conclusion. An okay watch for Pacino fans and anyone in the mood for a lukewarm spy flick. (B-)

1st watched 6/28/2003 - 6 out of 10(Dir-Roger Donaldson): Good spy action thriller with passable performances by the leads Farrell, Pacino and Moynahan. This isn't quite on-the-edge-of-your-seat material but there is a lot of good information given to you about the CIA to almost make it a how-to type of film at least in the first half. The 2nd half wonders more into the action-thriller genre but always keeps you guessing. Farrell is recruited by a CIA agent to be trained as one and we get to see how they are trained in a place called the `Farm', which is a special school for the CIA. Pacino's character constantly is stressing to Farrell and the audience that not everything is as it seems. This becomes kind of the theme throughout the movie as the viewer tries to figure out what's real and what's not. This is quite a challenge in this film considering that being deceptive is part of the job of the CIA agent. Another statement made by Pacino's character is that `everything is a test' also helps in the confusion of the reality issue. After Farrell goes thru the `Farm', he is assigned a special case to investigate someone that he seems to care(Moynahan) about, as a possible double-agent. The truth is twisted a couple of times near the end of the film but we're able to figure it out when it's all over. The 1st half and the 2nd half of this movie could actually each stand alone and that's what weakens the picture is the attempt to put both the CIA drama and the action-thriller together. All in all this is good viewing but could have been much better but it's apparent that the makers were ok with just ok, and that's ok.