Total Letdown. Review on The Recruit Movie

Hey folks its been a very long time since I last wrote anything on this site but I’m back. Had a very busy semester, which unfortunately is still not over (still got my theory papers to go). But let me get straight to the topic, I’m reviewing ‘The Recruit’ and boy I wish I could tell all you people out there that I found this movie to be up there with all the other Al Pacino classics, but I would have to be lying. Let me give you the entire low down on this movie in a very systematic manner (that’s if I remember how to…. I’m a little rusty here so give me a little lee-way ok guys)

The Cast

Starring: Colin Farrell, Al Pacino, Briget Moynahan

Director: Roger Donaldson

The Story

This is basically a spy flick wannabe.

Al Pacino is a CIA recruitment officer who from the very beginning drums home two points -- ''nothing is what it seems'' and ''everything is a test'' -- with such deliberateness that long before any real intrigue begins, the film's litany of elementary plot twists is stretched out on the screen like a road map. The very least the filmmakers could do is not give away their supposed surprises with billboard-sized clues in every other scene.

Collin Farrell has to be one of the dumbest MIT graduates in the prestigious Universities history. Besides him, every other person could guess about 10 minutes ahead of him what exactly was supposed to happen. The spy-versus-spy shots of his and Bridget Moynahan are simply hilarious and are a pathetic attempt at reality. He goes about ducking behind cars while trying to spy on her with everyone but her seeing it (I mean she too has had training to be a CIA undercover op has'nt she!!!) and then hacking her computer at her high security office with such consummate ease that one begins to wonder that if this really is the situation at the Langley (CIA headquarters) then why did it take Osama so much planning to blow up those buildings. I mean a child could mow his way in there.

About 30 minutes of the film take place at ‘the farm’ the training area for the CIA recruits. Where even the most extreme, unexpected scenarios are rendered useless due to Al Pacino’s incessant reminders that everything is a test. Basically nearly everything in this movie is predicted about two minutes before it actually occurs leaving a very bad taste in the mouth.

The saving grace of the movie is the chemistry between Moynahan and Farrell, and obviously the brilliant delivery of dialogues by Al Pacino. The more intense moments of ''The Recruit'' were filled with ridiculous dialogue that often didn't fit the story. It was well executed, but when you thought about what was being said, it didn't make very much sense.

In the end, ''The Recruit'' offered moments of intrigue, only to be hampered by inconsistent dialogue and an unintelligent script