The Recruit (2003)

In an era when the country's first line of defense, intelligence, is more important than ever, this story opens the CIA's infamous closed doors and gives an insider's view into the Agency: how trainees are recruited, how they are prepared for the spy game, and what they learn to survive. James Clayton (Colin Farrell) might not have the attitude of a typical recruit, but he is one of the smartest graduating seniors in the country - and he's just the person that Walter Burke (Al Pacino) wants in the Agency. James regards the CIA's mission as an intriguing alternative to an ordinary life, but before he becomes an Ops Officer, James has to survive the Agency's secret training ground, where green recruits are molded into seasoned veterans. Hilarity ensues as Burke teaches him the ropes and the rules of the game, James quickly rises through the ranks and falls for Layla, one of his fellow recruits. But just when James starts to question his role and his cat-and-mouse relationship with his mentor, Burke taps him for a special assignment to root out a mole. As the suspense builds toward a gripping climax, it soon becomes clear that the CIA's old maxims are true: "trust no one" and "nothing is what it seems."

Trivia: The pictures that are shown during the opening credits, of James and his father, are actual childhood photos of Colin Farrell and his father. The scene where Colin Farrell's character tells the girl at the bar how he "just got out of jail" was Farrell's idea. He said he used it on a girl in a bar one time and that it worked, so the producers put the scene in the film. The "abandoned warehouse" where the final sequence in the film takes place is the same set where Chicago's prison scenes were filmed.

Is it me or is Al Pacino just playing the same guy over and over and over again. I know it has happened before to other actors and Pacino is a good actor, but his characters haven't changed in 20 years. Collin Farrell was pretty good, the other guys were pretty good, it was an okay pretty good type film, but that's about all I can say about that.