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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: 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. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A serviceable spy thriller that stumbles over one too many plot twists, one too many shots of its hero typing desperately at his computer, and a romantic subplot that's nice to look at but awfully silly. Read more
John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: The Recruit adds little to the already overworked espionage genre, but it completes its mission, working quietly and stealthily, without drawing too much attention to itself. Read more
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: The Recruit may not bring anything new to the spy genre, but it passes the test as entertainment. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: I liked all those set pieces where they set up these elaborate schemes, and you're not sure who the good guy is, and the bad guy. Read more
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: While The Recruit is fast and slick enough to carry us along during its setup scenes, the screenplay isn't witty or tricky enough to sustain the payoff. Read more
A.O. Scott, New York Times: Everything else in The Recruit may be tiresomely predictable, but [Pacino], at least, is not. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The Recruit feels like a training exercise, for a star who's still in the making. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: You've seen this before, but probably not done this well. Read more
Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: The Recruit is little more than a fairy tale, one in which the prince gets to shoot the ball to smithereens. Read more
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: This is Donaldson's third thriller set amid Washington's powerful. They've all been winners -- smart, taut and more satisfying than anyone has a right to expect. Read more
Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: The Recruit is not a bad film, it's just not a very good one. Read more
Ricardo Baca, Denver Post: The foreshadowing is a bit heavy-handed, but the writers and director largely manage the tension and mystery tactfully. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A CIA thriller that plays some very tricky and entertaining spy games. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Beyond the opening frames, the whole movie has an altogether musty odour, as if those up-to-the-minute lines had simply been tacked on to a mothballed script. Read more
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: We've seen movies like The Recruit before, but this one is fun. Read more
Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: Colin Farrell's wild-eyed intensity manages to cover, for a good long time, the fact that the film's plot is going nowhere. Read more
John Anderson, Newsday: 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. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Here I suspected the ultimate villain almost from the very beginning -- and, if I wasn't fooled, I can't imagine anyone else will be, either. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Although The Recruit isn't Len Deighton or Robert Ludlum, it is enjoyable until the screenwriters develop a collective brain cramp. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: 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. Read more
Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle: The Recruit falters after it leaves the Farm, throwing in unbelievable plot devices and losing its high-wire tension. Read more
David Edelstein, Slate: A conjurer's trick that delights for about an hour, then spirals into idiocy. Read more
Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Read more
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: 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.' Read more
Mike Clark, USA Today: A less-than-middling melodrama whose subject matter and talent never click as much as its credits portend. Read more
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. Read more
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: The Recruit weighs in like a porous brick of recycled polypropylene. Read more