The Recruit

I don't know why I have a Netflix List. I have all these award winning films on queue, just waiting for me to click on them. And then a film like this comes around and I forgo everything I should be watching and go immediately onto this. I hilariously put this on my Netflix List. I think it maybe was there for 12 hours before I watched it and took it off immediately.

The Recruit stars Colin Farrell. He is a brilliant MIT graduate who is recruited into the CIA by none other than Al Pacino. He is seduced by the fact that Al Pacino knows a lot about his father and so he leaves a sure fire job because Al Pacino says he'd do a good job.

The next act of the film is him training in a CIA training facility called, "The Farm". The Farm is a training ground where nothing is as it seems and everything is a test.

Everything is crowded in twists and turns, all in an attempt to make this group of candidates ready to be CIA agents.

The act of the movie where they are training, is very, very good. This film is actually a rare look into the early acting career of Colin Farrell and the guy is a good actor. Put aside the hokey films he's been in like Dare Devil, and Minority Report, the guy is a very talented actor with films like Saving Mr. Banks, and this one.

At least his performance was good.

Pacino is... well, Pacino.

Regardless of what you think of him, the guy is fun to watch and he brings it in this film. He's just a character clouded in mystery and it really is very up in the air on whether or not he's to be trusted or not.

Bridget Moynahan plays a rival agent and the romantic interest. I'm not totally familiar with her work but her role in the film was unfortunately underwhelming. In many ways, she becomes the intellectual rival to Farrell, much of the movie becomes a Spy vs. Spy back and forth between the two.

However, she is an incredibly flawed female lead. Easily manipulated, her emotions are her weakness and despite having the desire to succeed in a man's world like every other female agent character in a lot of other movies, she quickly falls whim to Colin Farrell's bad boy charm.

There are a couple more characters, but in the end it really comes down to the relationship between Farrell, Pacino, and Moynahan. Pacino obviously brings the most entertaining performance, followed by Farrell, and followed a ways away by Moynahan.

While campy at times, the movie actually does do a pretty good job at keeping the audience guessing. Who is lying, who is telling the truth. Is this a test? Is this real? Who is the bad guy? Who is the good guy?

Its almost a little too twisty.

There's so many turns and twists to this movie that its almost laughable by the end. One thing turns another thing on its head and then fifteen minutes later, that thing is turned on its head.

Was the movie absolutely stellar? No. There are a lot of other movies that do the espionage, twisted thriller genre better. But The Recruit is a fun movie nonetheless. I personally love movies that remind me of old 80s action films.

While this movie is in no way iconic as The Fugitive, or Die Hard, the thing that I love about those movies is that they're the kinds of movies you can just sit down and watch. It doesn't have to be an event because its not a thought compelling movie. Its just fun, simple action, thriller movie with some twists in it and is just darn entertaining.

I am in no way comparing this to Die Hard or The Fugitive, instead I'm saying this movie is a fun film to just sit down and watch. You don't need to prepare for it, or need to be in a certain mood like a lot of the films I have on my Netflix list are.

Its just a movie that you may see on a Friday night when you're not looking for anything to complex or though provoking, just a movie filled with some hokey twists and mediocre acting.

Its not quite a B-list action film due to the names in this film, its just more fun.

I hope I'm explaining that clearly enough that I think this movie is worth checking out. Don't expect something as mind blowing as the Bourne films, but don't disregard is as a horrible movie either.

But those are my thoughts on The Recruit. Have you seen it? What did you think? Comment and discuss below.

I'll leave you with this. I love Pacino's work. I also love impressions of him. Here's a video of Frank Caliendo, a comedian with great impressions. I'd be surprised if you haven't seen this video but its mainly to show his Al Pacino impression... and to put up a new video I guess. Enjoy!