bnorthup
02-02-2003, 05:45 PM
The Recruit (PG-13)
At the Gaslight
Training spies to play hide and seek
By Brent Northup
With a great cast, that includes Al Pacino, and an intriguing topic – training spies – Touchstone Pictures should have produced a much better movie than “The Recruit.” In the end there’s just too little story per fist of popcorn to satisfy most filmgoers.
“The Recruit” starts well with Pacino recruiting a bright MIT graduate to join the CIA. The recruit, played well by Colin Farrell, is a genius with attitude – he cynically gives disrespectful answers during his psychological tests, but it turns his paranoid world view is just what the department wants.
The first half of the film is all about CIA spy training “on the farm.” The Farm is a secret training center where little boy and girl spies give up being naïve, learn to distrust everything – and graduate as man and woman spies.
They are taught that nothing is ever as it seems – with constant false alarms that tempt them time and again. Every few minutes they are tested yet again – fail a test and your spy career is over.
In one rather “Police Academy” moment, the boy spies are asked to invade a bar and find women who will sleep with them. So that’s how James Bond earned his license to kill.
The plot more or less erupts when suspicions rise that the training class has a mole burrowing around inside. The Recruit is asked to dig down in the bowels of the CIA and find the mole. The chief suspect: a beautiful spy trainee that The Recruit might just have to seduce in order to uncover her secrets. Oh well, somebody has to do the dirty work.
Eventually, the script takes a turn for the preposterous as it seeks to fabricate that clever, surprise ending that will send us home amazed. Trouble is I’m not sure if everybody in the auditorium was awake enough to be amazed.
To his credit, Pacino gives a first-rate performance even while working on a third-rate film. That’s the mark of a professional. And, for me, watching Pacino compensates for nearly everything else, just because I’ve always liked him.
The thought occurred to me that Pacino might make a great James Bond. Imagine the wrinkled Godfather guy playing an aging agent out to save the world. That would revitalize the Bond series, I’m sure. Now add a script by Charlie Kaufman and let Scorsese direct and Bond will rule the world again!
Perhaps, since I’m no longer talking about the movie, it’s best to say goodbye – and recommend Hastings as the site of this week’s best movies.
END
At the Gaslight
Training spies to play hide and seek
By Brent Northup
With a great cast, that includes Al Pacino, and an intriguing topic – training spies – Touchstone Pictures should have produced a much better movie than “The Recruit.” In the end there’s just too little story per fist of popcorn to satisfy most filmgoers.
“The Recruit” starts well with Pacino recruiting a bright MIT graduate to join the CIA. The recruit, played well by Colin Farrell, is a genius with attitude – he cynically gives disrespectful answers during his psychological tests, but it turns his paranoid world view is just what the department wants.
The first half of the film is all about CIA spy training “on the farm.” The Farm is a secret training center where little boy and girl spies give up being naïve, learn to distrust everything – and graduate as man and woman spies.
They are taught that nothing is ever as it seems – with constant false alarms that tempt them time and again. Every few minutes they are tested yet again – fail a test and your spy career is over.
In one rather “Police Academy” moment, the boy spies are asked to invade a bar and find women who will sleep with them. So that’s how James Bond earned his license to kill.
The plot more or less erupts when suspicions rise that the training class has a mole burrowing around inside. The Recruit is asked to dig down in the bowels of the CIA and find the mole. The chief suspect: a beautiful spy trainee that The Recruit might just have to seduce in order to uncover her secrets. Oh well, somebody has to do the dirty work.
Eventually, the script takes a turn for the preposterous as it seeks to fabricate that clever, surprise ending that will send us home amazed. Trouble is I’m not sure if everybody in the auditorium was awake enough to be amazed.
To his credit, Pacino gives a first-rate performance even while working on a third-rate film. That’s the mark of a professional. And, for me, watching Pacino compensates for nearly everything else, just because I’ve always liked him.
The thought occurred to me that Pacino might make a great James Bond. Imagine the wrinkled Godfather guy playing an aging agent out to save the world. That would revitalize the Bond series, I’m sure. Now add a script by Charlie Kaufman and let Scorsese direct and Bond will rule the world again!
Perhaps, since I’m no longer talking about the movie, it’s best to say goodbye – and recommend Hastings as the site of this week’s best movies.
END