As Americans' perception of our national security changes, so do our action movies. Intelligence is now our first line of defense, and Hollywood is reflecting this in its recent releases. The Recruit and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind are two CIA-based movies that are vastly different in their motivation and plot.

Of the two movies, The Recruit is more Linear, albeit with many more twists. Al Pacino headlines this movie and delivers true to his form. Pacino plays Walter Burke, a CIA recruiter, who brings young men and women into a world of lies. Nothing is what it seems is the mantra of this tale. Colin Farrell plays the main character, James Clayton, who is one of Burke's recruits. Clayton enters The Farm, the name of the CIA training campus, and from there he must confront a world of espionage whose rules are always changing. I feel going into more detail of the synopsis would ruin the experience of seeing the movie due to the plot twists it contains… so I will not.

Colin Farrell is from the Merry Isle or Ireland and should be most recognizable as the young detective who tracked down Tom Cruise in Minority Report. If Farrell isn't a household name yet, he'll be on his way after this movie and future appearances in Phone Booth (trust me, a future sleeper) and Daredevil. The magnitude of the movies shouldn't matter. With this performance as well as his performance in Minority Report, I feel that Farrell is the next best talented young actor. Bridget Moynahan plays Layla Moore, Farrell's romantic lead. She is relatively new, at least as far as "serious actress credits" are concerned. Her previous credits include Coyote Ugly and a small role on Sex and the City, so she has basically has one purpose, to look pretty. Now she's done that and done it well, but with this movie she had a chance to act, and she took full advantage. Because of the changes in the plot, her role required a level of complexity that not every actress in Hollywood is capable of. There is no Best Supporting Actress Nomination here, but this could lead her to those kinds of roles.

The director is Roger Donaldson. Now I don't know about you, but his is not a name that jumped out at me. But when you look at his previous work you find that not only is he seasoned, he has some winners. He directed Species, a movie that I felt would have been terrible under the wrong direction. Instead, it turned out to be an excellent, if underappreciated, piece of movie making. Other credits of Donaldson include Thirteen Days, No Way Out, and going back to his early days, Cocktail. His direction of The Recruit was nothing avant-garde or cutting edge, but he recreated a great suspense film.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is a movie based on the life of Chuck Barris, both his public life and his claimed life as an undercover CIA agent. Sam Rockwell (the murderer, Billy the Kid, in The Green Mile) plays Barris at an Oscar-level performance. Although, I'm afraid he's going to be snubbed… but who knows? George Clooney made his directorial debut and the movie was produced by Clooney's and Steven Soderberg's production company. These two men who have some clout in Hollywood. Drew Barrymore plays the romantic lead in Barris' public life and does great in adding to the humorous portion of the film. Julia Roberts plays the romantic lead in Barris' CIA life and plays a spectacular femme-fatale.

How did Clooney do in his debut? He created an impossible mix of suspense, psychological darkness, and humor. His style reminded me much of Soderberg's style in Oceans 11. Unlike The Recruit , this movie is more abstract and avant-garde.

The difference between the two movies is where their respective complexities lie. The Recruit has straightforward characters involved in a complicated plot. Confessions has a complicated character involved in a straightforward plot. It's about Barris's double life and the fact that he is in love with one woman from each world. His opposite lives are more complicated than just his loves. He is excoriated in the press for poisoning the minds of the public and saving the world by being a secret agent. Barris created such shows as The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show, which was essentially the beginning of reality television. He also claims to have assassinated as many as thirty people during the Cold War.

How do they compare? Which one do you see? Well the easy answer is to see both, but who wants to hear that? If you are not a movie buff and your needs are not complex, then go to see The Recruit . If you are an aficionado of film and you are interested in seeing a crazy mix of humor, action, and psychological thrills, then Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is your movie.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind : 4
The Recruit : 4

SCALE:

0 (Unbearable)
1 (If I'm Bored and Someone Else Pays)
2 (Worth Renting)
3 (Worth the Over-Priced Admission)
4 (I loved it, I'll buy the DVD)
5 (A Classic/Oscar Worthy)

~~~~~ Ben Lawrence is 26, resides in south central Pennsylvania, and is a starving artist. He works for the York Newspaper Company, runs his own website Project Soma.com , and is currently negotiating with a publisher over his first novel, called How to Kill Yourself Very Very Slowly. He reviews movies and books, writes fiction, covers sports, and dabbles in photography. His art is primarily surreal and/or psychedelic and usually satires concerning American pop culture. Ben's a Cancer so he's very sensitive ‘wink'.