The Recruit

Flixster Plot: "Nothing is what it seems" in The Recruit, a guessing-game thriller that employs plot twists and conflicting loyalties as its primary raison d'être. Surrounded by potential deception, a newly recruited CIA officer (Colin Farrell) must determine if his manipulative instructor (Al Pacino) is being honest when he identifies Farrell's fellow recruit and love interest (Bridget Moynahan) as an enemy "mole" assigned to steal a dangerous computer virus from CIA headquarters. While claiming to offer an insider's look at CIA training methods, this engrossing yet ultimately predictable plot is pure Hollywood fantasy; any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental, leaving the perpetually unshaven and scruffily coiffed Farrell to fend for himself in Pacino's cynical arena while tracing his familial roots in the spy game. Wearing its cleverness on its sleeve, The Recruit is an adequately elaborate puzzle of perceptions. "Everything is a test," as Farrell soon realizes, and attentive viewers will enjoy piecing it all together. --Jeff Shannon

My take: Pretty riveting stuff. Nothing special though.

Ocean's Thirteen

Plot from Flixster: Ruthless casino owner Willy Bank never imagined that the odds were against him when he double-crossed Danny Ocean's friend and mentor Reuben Tishkoff, putting the distraught Reuben in a hospital bed in critical condition. But Bank miscalculated... badly. He may have taken down one of the original Ocean's Eleven, but he left the others standing and, worse for him, gave them a shared purpose: to take Bank down on the night of what should be his greatest triumph--the grand opening of his new casino, appropriately named The Bank. Their strategy is twofold. First, they will ruin him financially by turning the tables on the precept that the house always wins. But, that's just money. The knockout punch will be to Bank's personal pride and joy: his reputation as the only hotelier who has earned the Royal Review Board's Five Diamond Award on every single one of his hotels. The plan is elaborate, dangerous and damn near impossible... but there are no limits when it comes to one of their own.

My take:
A vast improvement over Twelve, but doesn't quite hit the unique heights of Eleven. More of a techie's indulgence with the manipulation of advanced security systems and pure probability. The plan was too hitch-free to be engaging, and the audience was in on it all the time. You don't really want to know the ending when you read a book do you? Ditto.