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Reviews Counted:163
Fresh:70
Rotten:93
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: This polished thriller is engaging until it takes one twist too many into the predictable.
Theatrical Release:Jan 31, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $52,724,557
Synopsis: James Clayton is fired up. A bartender by night and computer hacker in the few hours of daylight for which he manages to leave his water bed, the kid is flying high, on a roll with a laid-back... [More]
Starring: Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht
Director: Roger Donaldson
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The Recruit manages to be almost utterly without innovation apart from its heroic determination to make matinee idol material out of a spy agency that pioneered the process of extra-legal bureaucratic sociopathology known as 'black ops.'
Top CriticDirector Roger Donaldson is so preoccupied by mood that he forgets about story.
The Recruit delivers some enjoyment if you don't think about it too hard.
The Recruit feels like a training exercise, for a star who's still in the making.
Unfolds more like a 100-minute game of Gotcha! than a conventional spy drama, and, depending on your tolerance for such things, this will either thrill or bore you.
Top CriticThe Recruit falters after it leaves the Farm, throwing in unbelievable plot devices and losing its high-wire tension.
Top CriticThe Recruit manages the commercially savvy trick of being both insolent and patriotic about the CIA.
Taut psychological thriller.
An entertaining ride.
Top CriticThe plot is convoluted, the villain is predictable, and too often logic is a lost cause.
The Recruit is one of those thrillers whose own internal logic assumes that viewers have none of their own.
Don't confuse The Recruit with an intelligent thriller just because its explosion count is low and it stars Al Pacino. Quiet moments can be dumb moments, too.
For the most part it's a completely ordinary, completely familiar, professionally executed film.
It's hard to tell which brand of coffee they're plugging in The Recruit but they sure drink a lot of it. Which is a good thing. A vicarious caffeine buzz is better than nothing, and you're going to need something to keep you awake.
Top CriticRepeatedly rewritten to within an inch of its life and showing it.
Should find the film provides a couple hours of solid amusement.
Although The Recruit isn't Len Deighton or Robert Ludlum, it is enjoyable until the screenwriters develop a collective brain cramp.
Top CriticToo transparent to produce nail-biting suspense.
Strictly paint-by-numbers.
The Recruit is a big-time, star-driven Hollywood thriller that turns out to be a bit of a sham.
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