Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Farrell plays a M.I.T. graduate who is recruited by the CIA to become one of their spies. Pacino is brilliant as the recruiter as well as the school's lead instructor. This is the first film that the CIA has actually consulted on with regards to their training program and according to their liaison it's pretty accurate. Farrell's character shows promise throughout the entire school but also finds himself emotionally involved with one of the students. This becomes his Achilles heel and eventual undoing. Or so he thinks. After being kicked out of the school he finds that his dismissal was a front to place him as a deep undercover operative. But the target ends up being the same girl he was falling for in school who is actually a mole that the CIA is onto.

I never know what to expect from movies that are only a few years old. Sometimes you can't even tell they're a bit older and sometimes they look like they were made decades ago. Thankfully this is a great looking presentation. It looks like some subtle clean up has been done since the film is lacking any noticeable grain but detail doesn't seem to suffer from it. Dimensionality is excellent and I was really impressed with how the contrast of the image helped with the depth. Colors look slightly subdued overall but that's probably because we stylized them so much with our newer films.

The uncompressed PCM soundtrack is engaging enough for this type of film but I didn't think it compared well to the newer action soundtracks being delivered today. The balance was a bit heavy at times with action scenes turning things up a bit too much in comparison to the rest of the movie. Even the score was noticeably higher. Dialogue is still balanced well though and tonal balance was convincing. The surround soundstage livens up in the action scenes but I didn't notice much ambience from the rest of the track.

Extras include some deleted scenes, an inside look at the CIA "spy" school and a feature commentary with the director and actor Colin Farrell.

The Recruit is about as good as it gets when it comes to these kinds of thrillers. The action is good and the script is very tight. Both Farrell and Pacino are excellent although Pacino outshines the new guy. Add in some great twists and this is a highly recommended film.