THE RECRUIT : AVERAGE ENTERTAINMENT BUT NOTHING NEW
Written: Feb 12 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: First half of movie
Cons: Bad ending, average writing
The Bottom Line: The recruit is ok to get on video but it's nothing great and nothing you haven't already seen before.
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| princealessio's Full Review: The Recruit |
"The Recruit" starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell was recently released and joins the list of one of the new films of 2003. Films released in the first 3 months of the year are usually known to not be very good. They are released by the studios who believe that they don't have enough box office power to be a big blockbuster for the summer or they are films that are not made well enough to win an academy award. In fact, of the 70 + years of academy awards only 5 films released in the first 3 months of the year have won best picture for that year. The last one being Silence Of The Lambs which was released in February of 1991. For some reason, Academy voters seem to have bad short term memories and can't remember films from the beginning of the year. Around 80% of the films that win best picture are actually released in the final 3 months of the year. This is disappointing to me however since I was hoping that Minority Report (May) would win this year but instead I think the award is going to be handed out to Chicago.
I recently went with my friend to see a film. He didn't want to see The Hours as I had planned and since I got to pick the film last time (Adaptation) I had to give in. I was at least happy he didn't pick garbage like "Kangaroo Jack," "Final Destination 2," or "Darkness Falls" that many studios put out this time of the year. I also gave in because Al Pacino has always been one of my favorites and Colin Farrell had done an excellent job in "Minority Report" and the vastly overlooked 2000 release "Tigerland" I didn't expect much than an average film and that's exactly what I ended up seeing.
In the film, James Clayton (Colin Farrell) plays a computer genius and MIT grad who is one day met by Walter Burke (Al Pacino) who tries to convince him to try out for the CIA. He doesn't want any part of it at first, but Burke starts mentioning Clayton's father who died many years ago. Clayton can't help but wonder what happened to his father so he's soon drawn in and decides to try out for the CIA. The film starts off pretty well as we are introduced to many of the secrets and games of the CIA. We are taken to the "Farm" where we see the recruits being put through many tests and mind games. The first part of the film is interesting and fun to watch.
The problem comes in that the final plot twist of the film is actually revealed in the trailers for the film. (A trailer is a film preview.) I had seen the trailer and it had already revealed the final plot twist which turned out to be correct after watching the film. This bothered me somewhat because if I know what would happen, then what would be the point of seeing the film? Trailers give away so much these days. Usually they contain the 2 or 3 funny jokes from a film just to draw you in. Then you find out those were the only 3 jokes in the whole film. Now it seems like they are just telling you too much and even giving away major plot details. Nevertheless, even without knowing about the final plot twist, the film practically tells you to watch for plot twists and there are many of them. There were times the characters would say "Nothing is as it seems." just about every minute. They said it so much, you never did believe anything while watching the film to a point that the plot twists weren't even surprising. There were so many twists, the film just went in a circle.
The writing is very contrived, you know exactly what they want to go with the film and what is going to happen. Many of the ideas and events occurring in the film are nothing new that I hadn't already seen before. As I stated earlier, the film started off well, but it looked like they were trying to fit it as many twists in the film as possible. Many films have been trying out the plot twist idea lately with the popularity of the "Sixth Sense" They could have easily explained things better and make a story that made more sense by the end, but unfortunately they decided not to do that. There is good acting here but plenty of screenwriting that is not sure what it wants to do and won't make sense of itself. It's good entertainment and fun for a while, but next time, please don't ruin the ending for us!
**1/2 out of ****
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
princealessio
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Location: Albany, NY
Reviews written: 52
Trusted by: 36 members
About Me:
Just started school.. busy... gonna write more soon....
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