Click here to copy URL

The Recruit

2003

Roger Donaldson

Colin Farrell, Al Pacino, Bridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht ...

6.2

22,121

Thriller. Action In an era when the country's first line of defence, intelligence, is more important than ever, comes an explosive thriller starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell that for the first time opens the CIA's infamously closed doors and gives an insider's view into the agency: how trainees are recruited, how they're prepared for the spy game, and what they learn to survive. James Clayton (Colin Farrell) may not have the attitude of a typical ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"As a thriller, 'The Recruit' is merely an entertaining ride. But remember: Nothing is what it seems (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"It's the kind of movie you can sit back and enjoy, as long as you don't make the mistake of thinking too much (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	A. O. Scott The New York Times	"Like Christopher Walken or Marlon Brando, Mr. Pacino frequently uses his gifts to make mediocre movies more interesting. Everything else in 'The Recruit' may be tiresomely predictable, but he, at least, is not."	NEG
United Kingdom	Alan Morrison Empire	"Pacino coasts through the proceedings and, while Farrell is admittedly a compelling (...) It's an entertaining thriller with any politically sensitive rough edges smoothed away (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Paul Clinton CNN	"For the most part, "The Recruit" is a taut drama (...) But it eventually trips over its own plot twists and can't quite shake its predictability."	NEU
United States	Todd McCarthy Variety	"For more than an hour, The Recruit is slickly entertaining escapism that deftly plays into common fantasies about what training to be a CIA op might be like."	POS
United States	David Edelstein Slate	"Pacino is a good mascot for The Recruit: a hambone in a vacuum."	NEG
United Kingdom	Nev Pierce BBC	"There's limited pleasure in watching the daft, perfunctory plot work itself out. Still, there's Farrell's charisma to prop things up (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.