Surprisingly, despite some lackluster reviews, The Recruit is a good movie for the post- cold-war spy action drama genre.

Mike, Dmitry and I went to the movie on Saturday so as to avoid paying full price for a movie with such inadequate reviews. Since I hadn't been to the theater since the first of the year, I really wanted to get out and see something, and at this point the quality filter was turned off. [OK, for those who are familiar with the Friday night movie crowd, you may wander what quality filter, but I assure you there are limits to what we will see].

In short, the film was well acted, had a well-developed plot and (as would be necessary for this genre) some nice action sequences and plot twists.

I won't put any spoilers on the site here, so I won't go in to the plot itself, except to say that it details recruiting a bright but troubled MIT student into the CIA.

For those of you in the DC area, you'll be amused to see that they use some actual DC locations, including Georgetown, Langley, and metro stations.

All things considered, if you're looking for slightly less than two hours of distraction with minimal effort and a couple of well-performed twists, you can go see this film.

For those with weaker stomachs, there are a couple of scenes of graphic violence, but they are well isolated and are required by the plot.