Rating: 
Summary: Cool, Al Pacino, you are the best
Review: I just saw it in the movies. You would think its anohter CIA movie. But it is one of the best I saw. Al Pacino is one of the best actors in the world. So if the movie wasn't good than Al would make it better. But he didn't need to do that. It was a great film with a cool ending. I don't think that I know another movie with Colin Farrell in it, but he was great. I liked him too. I would like to tell you more about the movie, but its better to see it than to read about it. by the way: my english isn't that good so if it was better than I could write you a complete book of this movie. Its the best I've seen in a few months
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Believe What You See
Review: In a time when terrorism has taken over instead of the threat of the previous cold war, the CIA is again in need of young vigorous intelligent people and a CIA recruiter, Walter Burke (Al Pacino), finds a young computer programmer by the name James Clayton (Colin Farrell). The hook that catches James is that his father disappeared under unexplained circumstances and it seems like his father was a CIA agent. At the Farm, which is what the CIA calls the school where they educate their future agents, James finds out that everything at the Farm is a test. During his schooling by the CIA, he builds strong feelings for one of the other students and this seems to be very dangerous and he questions whether this is a test or reality. The Recruit is a suspenseful thriller that keeps the audience engaged with the film from the beginning to the end, which provides a solid experience with a few holes.
Rating: 
Summary: The Shadow Knows!
Review: Colin Ferrell stars (finally) as a recruit for the CIA, seeking his elusive fatherwho was one of the agents in Peru who mysteriously disappeared. He has a beautiful face and a pretty smile. Those eyes looked so like George Clooney. This story was all about spies and espionage -- but spies reading spy novels was kinda funny, I thought. Walter Burke, recruiter for the CIA, kept reminding the students that "nothing is what it seems." They rode the #801 bus, Infinity, to The Farm where they were taught to kill, using Tai Chi to relieve stress. Punching bags also came in handy. The teacher reminded them to "trust only yourself; I'm not your friend." He tried to drill into them that our failures are known, our successes are not. They used false IDs and were taught deception. The female recruit drove a silver VW Jetta; he had a red pickup (shades of actor Fred Thompson, former Senator from Tennessee). They met in The Coffee Bean restaurant, and ended up sleeping with a "traitor." Neither trusted the other and the cab chase and the encounter in Washington's Union Station were exciting. They played "cat and mouse" games with each other and, at first, it seemed to be false affection. Zach from Florida Atlantic University met his demise at the hands of our major recruit. Or did he? It was never totally explained. He was great singing BIG MAN and pretended to learn "Farci." The number one lesson they learned was that no matter what, do not get caught. Also, if you keep looking back, you will miss your whole life. The Iwo Jima statue in D.C. was a good touch. Our hero finds himself being abducted, and the confinement brings out the beast as in any human. He is humiliated and endures much torture. He learns the hard way that "everything is a test" and "information is more important than people and relationships." One thing which astonished me was the how a bartender turned recruit can type so fast on a computer keyboard.
This movie was standard, but the acting was outstanding. Al Pacino gave an award-winning performance at the end. He grew into his character as the movie progressed.
Rating: 
Summary: Following the script of spy-vs-spy to a T
Review: 'The Recruit' has everything a spy thriller needs to work: good-guy vs. bad-guy plot, a motive for the spy scheme, the supposedly good-guy who you knew was a traitor five minutes into his debut, surprise twists and turns, romance, lots of spy toys and guys waving guns around in a threatening manner, and last but not least, a hot male star as the Secret Agent.
Colin Farrell does a good job of playing the Secret Agent, from the face to the attitude to the credibility. His face has just enough arrogance to save him from being a pretty boy, even through his refusal to shave made him also eligible to play a bum off the street. His cocky, somewhat daring, and conniving attitude saved him from becoming a saintly Jack Ryan, but he walked a fine line between arrogant and idiotic at times. Although Mr. Farrell does not really possess the computer geek image that MIT supplies, it's easy to see him as Secret Agent Man. Or a bartender, for that matter.
Al Pacino is looking better than ever--literally. In 'Simone'- which I believe was his most recent movie before 'Recruit,' Mr. Pacino looked old, worn out, and decrepit (which was fine, as his character was old, worn out, and decrepit). In 'The Recruit,' Mr. Pacino looks years younger and more energetic--but his tell-all confession at the end of the flick grasped at a familiar straw. This is when the director assumes that he is trying to entertain a mob of five-year-olds, who need an explanation of the Bad Guy's motives in order to condemn him.
Our Hero's Love Interest is played very conventionally by Bridget Moynahan. Playing the Secret Agent's girlfriend is always a thankless task (whatever happens to all those broken-hearted Bond girls?), no matter how well the character is written or how well the actress performs. Audiences never forget that the purpose of the girl in the Spy Flicks are simply for the Secret Agent to get laid. Ms. Moynahan did her job well, but how much was truly demanded of her character?
In the end, 'The Recruit' is merely just a test. Can rising star Colin Farrell shakedown Americans in a movie that was clearly only made for money? Can old Al Pacino still burn a hole in Uncle Sam's wallet? And how many times can you reinvent the Spy-to-Spy Thriller before you have ritual suicides in the audience before the flick is over? True, 'The Recruit' opens the doors to the CIA training facilities. But let's face the truth: in a few years, ex-CIA bagmen will be coming out with tell-all stories about 'what REALLY goes behind the doors of the CIA.' So if you're looking for Spy Stuff, rent a Bond Flick, In Like Flint, or 'The Bourne Identity'. If you're looking for fast, easy entertainment, then 'The Recruit' is perfectly game.
Rating:
Summary: Good Movie
Review: I thought this movie was pretty good, I like technology and that kind of stuff so I thought it was cool that he is a computer whiz. I really hate it when people sit here and spell out the whole plot for the audience. This is where you right your review, not a synopsis!
Rating:
Summary: Good performances
Review: Sometimes actors are better than the movie that they're in. This is one of thsoe occasions. Farrell as the suposedly naive young recruit who turns into a double agent to capture Al Pacino the true criminal is a twist that is telegraphed from the beginning of the movie. The premise of having to go up against yuour mentor in a battle of wits isn't a new one. I'm still unclear as to how Pacino is taped giving an over the top confession. Sometimes smart people, aren't that smart. But he and Farrell do create a good measure of acting ability in a bad script.
Rating:
Summary: You've seen it before, but you'll see it one more time
Review: "The recruit" is like this: Collin Farrell is James Clayton. He's graduated top of his class in MIT, he's a computer wizard, he's developed a revolucionary software and he's currently working as a bartender in Boston. Hmmm. Al Pacino is Walter Burke, a CIA recruiter and instructor who claims to have an eye for good talented fresh spies. So, Walter Burke recruits James Clayton to work with CIA. At some point of the movie, Al Pacino's character says: "Nothing is what it seems". This is what "The recruit" is about. Deceiving. Of course, it's a good thriller, lots of action scenes, interesting psychological (even if it's very shallow) aspects, a love affair between two of the main characters, a good car-chase scene, etc. Even so, the script is very formulaic, following a pattern that has done well previous times. There are plot twists every time, but every time you see them coming. Colin Farrell seems to be the star of the moment. Although in this movie the producers tried to fix him an image of never-shave-bad-boy-baby-face, he's competent and talented, giving credibility to his scenes. Al Pacino has to take care: he's starting to repeat himself. His character Walter Burke is like his character in "Donnie Brasco", "The insider", "Carlito's way", etc. But, still, his mere presence is motive to watch this movie. This is Bridget Moynahan's most-time-on-screen movie, and her career should get going well if she keeps it like this. There are a lot of plot-holes and things that make the viewers role their eyes, so this is the "put your brain in neutral" kind of movie. Watch and have fun. Grade 8.0/10
Rating:
Summary: Twists itself out of shape
Review: "The Recruit" is a reasonably stylish but thoroughly conventional espionage thriller distinguished only by its high-calibre cast. Pacino and Farrell are both excellent, as CIA recruiter and recruit respectively, but their performances are straitjacketed by a story which is far less clever than it tries to be. Relentlessly plot-driven, its writers seem to have succumbed to the dictum that audiences love twists. M. Night Shyamalan is the master of that particular game and has shown us, many times, the almighty power of a single twist: it can subvert your expectations in an instant, and recast everything you've seen in an entirely different light. (See director Roger Donaldson's own "No Way Out" (1987) for a fine example.) But less is always more. Layering twist upon twist, as the writers of "The Recruit" do, usually works against a film because it forces us out of the story. After having our expectations thwarted too many times, we give up wondering where the story is headed and completely disengage. Revelations then become mundane; the unexpected becomes predictably unpredictable; realism collapses under the weight of the story's silliness. "The Recruit" stretches credulity and our patience from the outset and they both finally hit breaking point in a climax which is unnecessarily implausible. And the payoff isn't even that good: when you reassemble the pieces and work out what's really gone on, it wasn't much better than the plot of a decent telemovie. Ironically, the characters in this film are potentially the most interesting things about it. Farrell and Pacino are good, but are both under utilised because their characters are under written. In a time when the CIA's operations, ethics and international agenda are being increasingly questioned, it would have been so much more interesting to explore the people who play the game - especially if the ethical quagmire had been acknowledged rather than dismissed, as it is here, with familiar-sounding platitudes about good and evil, us and them. What are the motivations of these people? How do they really live? What are the personal costs of what they do? Such a movie wouldn't have to be quiet or without surprises - and it could be quite a bit more entertaining. To wit, "Spy Game".
Rating:
Summary: No Way Out
Review: "The Recruit" could finally be the film that makes a star of Colin Farrell. If it doesn't, it won't be that all concerned didn't give it the old college try, for he is given the major star treatment in this smart, fast paced, mostly coherent thriller.
Colin has been buffed-up, polished, hair-do'd, light as well as Reese Witherspoon or Kate Hudson and costumed so as to look as cool and attractive as possible. It also helps immensely that he has Roger Donaldson as his director, for it was Donaldson who made a star of Kevin Costner in the similar themed "No Way Out" in the late 1980's.
"The Recruit" has all the requisite plot and plot twist bells and whistles to make it fun, but it is ultimately lightweight material especially in comparison with Doug Liman's sublime and world-weary" The Bourne Identity" of last year.
Al Pacino's role as Walter Burke, James Clayton's (Farrell) recruiter into the C.I.A is a walk in the park for him but he manages to squeeze some resonance and believability out of, what for him, is a stock role.
"The Recruit" is a groovy way to spend a couple of hours, as Donaldson knows how to make this type of material interesting and believable. But ultimately it is Farrell who triumphs in the most complicated, ironic and multi-layered performance of his young career.
Rating:
Summary: Training Day Revisted And Not Nearly As Good!
Review: I must agree with another reviewer in saying that this film was simply Training Day redone, but at least Training Day had some good acting, and gritty realism to the characters. This film was more like a made-for-television lark. The character "Burke" Pichino's character I found both interesting and annoying at the same time. Pichino is an awesome actor however his trademark for long winded, pointless speeches towards the end of some of his films (unfortunately this one as well) seems to indicate vanity instead of acting acumen. This is annoying because I know that he can do better, and this was sophomore effort.
The other characters were wooden and unteresting. I didn't care if Burke was a traitor, because this bloody movie was so bad I wanted Burke to get away. I wanted Burke to succeed because in all reality the other characters were too incompotent to win in the end. Instead of giving the main character a lecture at the end, he should've whacked him! In looking for him in some warehouse, why does Burke bust his head through a glass door? Save your money and rent it if you truly must see it.
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