THE RECRUIT
RATING: PG-13
STARRING: Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynahan, and Gabriel Macht
DIRECTOR: Roger Donaldson
PRODUCERS: Roger Birnbaum, Jeff Apple and Bary Barber
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Jonathan Glickman and Ric Kidney
WRITERS: Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer and Mitch Glazer
DISTRIBUTOR: Touchstone Pictures/Buena Vista
GENRE: Thriller/Spy
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Teenagers and adults
SUMMARY: In The Recruit, Al Pacino stars as Burke, a veteran CIA trainer who recruits James Clayton, a computer whiz kid. Unfortunately for Clayton, the CIA phrase, "Nothing is what is seems," proves to be painfully true in this cat and mouse game of deception. After being rejected for failing an interrogation by torture test, Clayton finds himself on the outside. Soon, however, he is approached by Burke and told he actually passed and is now wanted for a real assignment . . . to find out what a mole inside the CIA has stolen. The catch is that the mole is one of his classmates and a love interest to boot!
The Recruit is a good spy yarn, with fine performances by Al Pacino, Colin Farrell and Bridget Moynahan. It has little profanity, little violence and only two scenes implying fornication, which is light for this genre. By no means a Christian movie, the character of James Clayton nevertheless is a noble person who's trying to do the right thing for his country. He truly believes and is committed to his course. Thus, The Recruit has some moral merit which may be discussed with mature teenagers.
CONTENT: Moral worldview with moral protagonist with some pagan elements, such as spy recruits are assigned the task of getting women to have sexual relations with them, and some patriotic elements; violence includes CIA action violence and shooting; implied fornication and spy recruits are assigned the task of getting women to have sexual relations with them; no nudity.
SHANGHAI KNIGHTS
RATING: PG-13
STARRING: Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Fann Wong, Aiden Gillen, Donnie Yen, Aaron Johnson, and Tom Fisher
DIRECTOR: David Dobkin
PRODUCERS: Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Jackie Chan, Willie Chan, Solon So, Stephanie Austin, and Edward McDonnell
WRITER: Alfred Gough and Miles Millar
DISTRIBUTOR: Touchstone Pictures/Buena Vista (Disney)
GENRE: Action Adventure/Martial Arts
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older children to adults
SUMMARY: Shanghai Knights stars Jackie Chan as Chon Wang, who visits his friend Roy, played by Owen Wilson, in New York City looking for the money Roy was supposed to invest for him. Chon needs the money to get to England, where Chon's sister is tracking down the aristocratic Englishman who killed their elderly father and stole the Chinese Emperor's seal. Roy has spent a lot of the money, however, and invested the rest in a crazy scheme to build helium aircraft.
Shanghai Knights is, perhaps, more funny and more exciting than Shanghai Noon. Jackie Chan again shows why he's a master at martial arts filmmaking. Regrettably, however, the filmmakers use Roy's character to insert some inappropriate, unfunny, gratuitous sexual comedy, plus some vulgar language, into the proceedings. Therefore, Shanghai Knights deserves an extreme caution for the older children and teenagers who might want to see it, and only three stars.
CONTENT: Light moral worldview, including a plea to God for help, with some immoral pagan elements and a few homosexual jokes; 13 obscenities, one strong profanity, one light mild profanity, and a few crude double entendres; action violence such as martial arts fighting, leaping and falling, machine gun fire, young man fatally stabs elderly man, slapstick comedy, and sword fighting; sexual references such as waiter tries to bed rich young woman but is interrupted, pillow fight with prostitutes.
