Python Hyena The Recruit (2003): Dir: Roger Donaldson / Cast: Colin Farrell, Al Pacino, Bridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht, Kenneth Mitchell: Total mind game where viewers are sent through the same sort of manipulation as the hero. The title seems to suggest recuperation of our past. Colin Farrell seeks answers regarding his father who was a C.I.A. agent who died in 1990. An encounter with Al Pacino has him asking more questions but instead he is trained as a C.I.A. agent. He assigns Farrell to find out who a fellow trainee is working for and from there he is led deceit, betrayal and near death situations. Setup gives backgrounds then the screenplay delivers numerous effective plot twists until unveiling a mindless conventional climax. Directed by Roger Donaldson after having directed such crap as Species and Dante's Peak. Farrell presents emotional confusion and frustration as he is sucked into the past. He survives out of luck and intellect. Pacino succeeds as a connection to the past who tests Farrell for a mission that will reveal certain people as something other than what they are presenting. Bridget Moynahan makes a great impression as a female recruit whom Farrell is ordered to follow. The romantic elements are obvious. Gabriel Macht is too brief as a trainee, and other roles are pretty much standard issue for this sort of film. Plays like an episodic crime show and that's not a compliment. Score: 5 ½ / 10

tbills2 Colin Farrell is the recruit, and Al Pacino is the instructor. CIA is the training grounds, and to be the best and beat the rest is the mission. Bridget Moynahan is the mark, and figuring out the truth from the untruth is the objective. Deceit is the name of the game, your identity is the ante, your life is the stake, and glory is the rake. Colin Farrell is the cardplayer, and Bridget Moynahan could be the winnings. Al Pacino is probably the dealer, and everything is wild!The Recruit is a really good movie. Colin Farrell stands out, while Al Pacino leads the film into relevance. The relationship between Ferrell and Moynahan is really good. Colin Farrell is searching for information about his father and he may have found his answers in the CIA. Al Pacino is the suspense. The Recruit is really good because of Al Pacino and Colin Farrell and Bridget Moynahan's performances. It has great CIA fantasy nostalgia and has the same identity to it as Training Day. Roger Donaldson is the director, The Recruit is the movie, and everything is a test!

OJT This one went under my radar in 2003, but I finally caught up on it the other day. And I must admit it was a pleasure to watch. I enjoy a good spy thriller, and this is up there among them.I saw it was a Roger Donaldson flick, and that's enough fir me. He's made some really decent movies, like "No way out", "The world's fastest Indian", "Thirteen days", "The bank job", "Cocktail", "The getaway". He's on the game.A young man, James Clayton (Colin Farrell) is targeted as a new CIA recruit by old CIA veteran Walter Burke (Al Pacino), which lures him interested because of his longing to know more about his long lost dad. Going through the training, he learns a lot, and seems to be one of the best, but will he succeed in becoming an agent? Will he succeed in finding out more about his father?What I like in particular here is the inventiveness which goes behind the CIA. I know it's not facts, but still I like the way it's told. The acting is plausible, yet there's some of the script hare which could have.been better. The film uses so much time in establishing the the recruitment, that the ending story is not that established. However it still a great thriller, which gives you enough to chew on.The main thing with a thriller like this, is to thrill, and this does, plenty. Al Pacino is good, Colin Farrell too, so are he rest. A good spy thriller, and a good thrill and fine entertainment.

CinefanR Al Pacino is the main reason to watch "The Recruit". The second would be his pairing with C. Farrell in this mentor- student relationship that is entirely predictable, but still fun to watch due to their on screen chemistry. The script is average and it has its embarrassing moments (why do we have to learn that Pacino's character urinates like a racehorse every two hours?!), and the second half of the film drags as a result of Pacino's absence. When he's off screen, the whole thing is a bore, since it's him that holds it together. The man can read a telephone book and make it sound interesting.'Pacino – The Mentor' works every time, and we just don't have enough of that, even if it has developed into a genre of its own. Here he's just showing off, obviously having a good time as the seasoned, jaded CIA senior officer playing his tricks on young minds. Farrell puts on quite a show as the impressionable and naïve student, so 'The Recruit' is enjoyable despite the formulaic development. There is no suspense in this flick whatsoever, but the "Pacino – Farrell" duo gets 10 stars.