Rating: 
Summary: Wide Screen 1.77 not 2.35
Review: The picture of this DVD is in 1.77:1 Aspect Ratio. Not in the 2.35:1 Aspact Ratio that was presented in the theaters.This is FULL SCREEN for 16:9 TV's..!! There no trailers on this DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: A MUST SEE!
Review: Colin Farrell does an excellent job in this movie!
(what facial expressions!)
High energy, keeps you thinking!
Sure the movie has it's flaws and some areas you just can't believe but the overall entertainment and psychological effect is excellent; based on what I've seen out there I have to give this movie 5 stars for entertainment!
The producers are on the right track and I hope to see more like this one!
Rating:
Summary: Things are exactly as they appear...
Review: Spinning a web of lies and deceit to save the world, Al Pacino recruits computer wiz Colin Farrell to join the CIA; Pacino performs a magic act to highlight to Farrell that everything is not as it appears and so it is with the CIA as well. He ends up at "The Farm" which is almost like a boarding school for trainees. There Farrell falls for another trainee nicely played by Bridget Moynihan. The web grows more and more complex as Farrell is thrust into a position to out a double agent that has infiltrated "The Farm" and the CIA in hopes of obtaining a powerful computer program called Ice 9. Roger Donaldson has directed a number of terrific pictures. This isn't one of them. Everything is EXACTLY as it appears in this predictable and routine thriller. Hitchcock would have been ashmed at the mundane writing and plotting of this lazy thriller. This is connect the dots screenwriting; you know exactly where the film is going, how it's going to get there and what the outcome is within the first hour of the film. The film is saved by a couple of nice performances by Pacino, Farrell and the marvelous Bridget Moynihan. The extras highlight what is known about the real CIA Farm and what sort of training they go through. Our guide is a real CIA operative (or so he says--maybe things aren't as they appear...mmmmm). The best thing about the film is the glimpse into what might be the mode the CIA uses to train and wash out recruits to the agency. Regardless, it's clear it would take a special type of person to work for the CIA; as Pacino points out, it ain't for the money, the chicks or the fame as they don't get any of that. It's a pity because the folks that do work for the CIA (whether or not you agree with what they do)certainly deserve a better film to celebrate them than this half hearted thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Looks familiar . . .
Review: . . . especially to those who've read Mailer's *Harlot's Ghost* (i.e., young man with "father issues" gets recruited by an overwhelmingly charismatic sensei-type from CIA, followed by training at the Farm, etc. etc.). Al Pacino delivering yet another Big Speech near the end will also seem tiresomely familiar. The plot of *The Recruit* keeps twisting and turning, but to no real purpose: one look at Pacino's untidy, shaggy-haired CIA instructor sends up the red flag that something's amiss, thus removing the "surprise" from the "surprise ending". Director Roger Donaldson & Co. are to be commended for avoiding pointless and expensive carnage, but -- perhaps out of fear of losing our interest -- they rush along too quickly, especially early in the film. There's a lot of meaningless camera movement, and scenes that feel too short. This anxiety probably accounts for the basic implausibility of the whole thing, as well. First of all, military experience, even if it's ROTC merely, is a prerequisite for joining CIA. Our Young Hero (Colin Farrell, wearing a perpetual 5-days growth of beard), is a computer-geek who graduated with honors from MIT . . . good for him, but CIA still wouldn't take him without military experience. Nor would they wait till AFTER he graduated -- they'd try to get him while he was matriculating. CIA gets their men from college and/or the military . . . they don't pick up guys off the street. Do moviemakers expect us to swallow EVERYTHING? Finally, may I make a request? PLEASE REMOVE COMPUTERS -- PERSONAL OR OTHERWISE -- FROM THE MOVIES. If I have to sit through another movie in which some nerd is typing rapidly on a keyboard for five minutes at a stretch, I swear I'm gonna throw my TV out the window. There may be nothing less cinematic than TYPING. TYPING doesn't generate suspense, and it isn't interesting to watch. ENOUGH WITH THE COMPUTERS!!
Rating: 
Summary: Macho Secret Agent Computer Geeks Rule!
Review: As a macho computer geek (gee, there's an oxymoron), Colin Ferrell is recruited by the CIA to become a spy. Bridget Moynihan, a cute brunette, plays his love interest whom he meets on "The Farm," the CIA's top secret training facility. Colin, at the top of his game, supposedly washes out, but is set up outside of the system to spy on the other recruits. He falls in love with one and kills another. And the movie mercifully concludes after the only (painfully obvious) twist is revealed to us at the end. As a nerdish fantasy come to life, this video isn't bad. But as an espionage-based thriller, the storyline leaks like a sieve. With the excessive role playing, The Farm ends up looking like a weekend theater workshop. And if this movie is any indication of their true professionalism, it's no wonder that the (real) CIA completely botched up any assessment of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Al Pacino's performance is the only thing propping up this film for three-quarters of its length. Unfortunately, even he couldn't save us from the film's cliched ending and the plot's weak premise. This movie is definitely a "pass."
Rating:
Summary: Confusing
Review: This movie is great but not for the right reasons. Usually I base the movie on it's plot and the understanding of it. This one has me still thinking though. It is good until the end comes around...when you start going WHAT??? If someone wants to explain what happened please do! This was however, my first Colin Farrell movie and I am in love! Al Pacino is great too. Buy this one for the hotties and not the plot...it has action though!
Rating:
Summary: it's no spy game
Review: A Film by Roger Donaldson The Recruit is a film about the CIA and a training facility called "The Farm". Walter Burke (Al Pacino) is a teacher at The Farm and is trying to recruit James Clayton (Colin Farrell) to join the CIA. Clayton is intrigued both by how Burke sells the CIA and also because Burke claims some knowledge about Clayton's father (who disappeared/was killed in 1990). Clayton goes along for the ride and the first half of the movie is the training at the Farm. The first half of the movie (barring the first 5-10 minutes) is by far the best of the movie. If the quality would have held up, this could have been a great movie. During the training we meet Layla (Bridget Moynahan), who may or may not be a spy. Burke tells Clayton early in the movie that nothing is as it seems. If we keep that in mind we have to accept that anything we are presented is a lie. This makes the first half of the movie very interesting but also makes the second half of the movie fairly conventional. Nothing is really wrong with it, but nothing is really right with the second hour. There are a couple of twists that aren't really unexpected, but nothing too spectacular. Here's the bottom line: I enjoyed watching the movie, but it was ultimately empty and forgettable. Al Pacino gets to give a nice speech (a wonderful, but typical Pacino explosion), and everyone does a good job, but the movie is just lacking...I think it is lacking any kind of real story. If you want to see a better movie in this genre, see Spy Game. It's a much better movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting Evening's Entertainment!
Review: For anyone who has ever had any contact with the real world, many of the premises of this unlikely thriller are so far fetched that they create an air of unreality early on. But if you are enough of a Pacino fan, as I am, you let it go and suspend your critical faculties and just go along for the wild ride you have just buckled in for. The initial thirty minutes of this two-hour travelogue into the heart of the CIA spy world is interesting and appealing, as is the fast paced and thrilling last thirty minutes. The middle hour tends to slow way down, with more than a little gratuitous sex (to prove the two lead actors of Colin Farrell and Bridget Moynahan are 'hot'?) and a great deal of extraneous dialogue between them and between Farrell as the 'recruit' of the title and a wonderfully droll Pacino as his 'mentor' (read "handler" here). The central lesson in this diverting and often surprising potboiler is that "nothing is as it seems", and it is so depressing and cynical at points to make you want to put the DVD on "pause" and go have yourself a decent leisurely cry.
But the action resumes with a vengeance, just as one is beginning to despair that this may actually be a message movie in drag. The plot is plausible, though it is sometimes adrift in the trees a bit. Farrell, a recent MIT computer whiz, is seduced into dissing a career shot with Dell Computers to chase the chimera of his father's murky past as an agent with the CIA. Apparently the "Agency" believes in legacy appointments now, so Farrell is whisked away to "The Farm", a reference to an idea quite blatantly stolen from the John LeCarre novels like "Smiley's People" about the British Intelligence Services' training ground for agent initiates. Here he keeps relearning to depend on no one but himself and his native intellect and intuition, for outside these narrowly confined perimeters, nothing is in fact what it seems to be. Nothing. The acting is good, and the cast seems believable given the twisting and turning plot and the mysterious devices that employed to keep us guessing as to what is happening. What is Pacino really up to? When does the training and tests ever end? As we speed toward the conclusion, we begin to understand the level of resident suspicion an agent must develop and maintain to survive in the fractiously perilous world of the secret world of clandestine operations. Do not rent this movie expecting it to be a realistic reflection of life as an agent for any of the so-called intelligence services. Instead, accept as a Hollywood confection designed and contrived for you evening's entertainment. Intelligent and thoughtful it is not, but as an exciting and pleasant way to escape into the never-never land of fiction and daring-do, it is a lot of fun. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable until you think about it
Review: I love Al Pacino, and I really enjoyed the movie when I saw it last nighht. But now, thinking about it, alot of it seemed really ridiculous. I won't go into the story--many have done that already. But these are my points: First, you would think that James would be a little suspicious of having to break into Layla's computer. I mean, Burke could've done so himself after hours or on the weekend. There was no reason to sneak into it while she was at work. Second, what was the deal with Layla and Zack? It's never explained why they were working together--doing what? What was Zack's role? In fact, what job did Zack get after he finished at the Farm? And that note she passed to him? Duh, how about just telling him in person when they were at work. They are allowed to speak to eachother. And then why did Zack run and then fire at James? Makes no sense at all. In fact, it was one of the stupidest scenes in the movie. Third, didn't James think it odd that he was working only with Burke? Burke was the head instructor at the Farm. Why would James be dealing with him on this mission? He also would've been hooked up with others, and given a thorough briefing on his new role as NOC. Not just told in a car by his instructor and then set to work. Again, really stupid. Fourth, the ending is pretty dumb, when you think about it. And we don't really know what happened? Did James really wash out at the Farm? Was he really a NOC? Was he still in the CIA? He's sitting in a car with another spook, going to be debriefed, and the guy tells him that it's in "his blood." So what does that mean? Is he in or out? Fifth, it seems that if Burke really wanted this program, he had enough access to figure out a simpler means of stealing it. He had enough clout there, and supposedly, as a spy of 27 years, enough brains to figure out something more foolproof, involving less people and less chance of a slip-up. This could have been a good movie, as I liked the beginning about the training. But then it just slipped. Too many loopholes, too much idiocy, not enough real plot.
Rating:
Summary: The Recruit - Nothing is as it seems...
Review: I would definitely have to say that this is quite an intriguing movie with a well thought out plot and acted out well by all concerned. Al Pacino, what can you say about Al Pacino; in every movie he does he's Al Pacino and that's what makes him the brilliant actor he is, change the name of the role, it doesn't matter what and you still have Al Pacino. Colin Farrell does an admirable job in this movie as well as does Bridget Moynahan. The movie purports to be "loaded with twists and turns," which is a statement I will agree with, whether they're suspenseful twists and turns is in the eye of the beholder. The one thing that sets a movie apart from others is that it turns out something new, something that hasn't been seen before. With "The Recruit," yes we get to see "The Farm" which is very interesting in and of itself, but overall, many of the plot twists that are there to "surprise" and raise the level of tension before the payoff, all seem to be somewhat predictable. This is not to say that the film is not enjoyable, because it is, it's just not groundbreaking. The premise: Al Pacino plays a CIA recruiter and he sets his sights on Colin Farrell's character for recruitment into the CIA's training program. After some interesting initial scenes, we're taken to "the farm" where we see the main character going through the training program. Where the plot picks up is when he's no longer in the training program and is out on "the mission." What follows, is as stated above, an intriguing movie with some interesting plot twists and turns. I would definitely recommend this movie as either for the DVD collection or a rental depending on ones purchasing habits. {ssintrepid} Special Features: - "Spy School: Inside The CIA Training Program' - Never Before Seen Look Inside the CIA - This is an interesting look at the CIA and the glimpses of the actual training program. - Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary - There are four somewhat interesting deleted scenes here, what is of interest is the commentary, especially with the continual bleeping as Colin Farrell seems incapable of raising his vocabulary to an acceptable level. - Feature Commentary With Director Roger Donaldson and Colin Farrell.
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