Final Destination 2. David R. Ellis. Opens Friday, January 31. Reviewed this issue.
In July. Turk Fatih Akin. Daniel, a clueless physics teacher, plans to stay in Hamburg for the summer but falls in love with a beautiful Turkish girl and decides to meet her in Istanbul. On the way, he picks up a hitchiking street vendor, and the young couple travel, argue and make up along the way. In German with English subtitles. In July is shown with an animated short film, "The Indescribable Nth," directed by Oscar-nominated Oscar Moore. Opens Friday, January 31, for a one-week run at the Tivoli. NR
The Recruit. Roger Donaldson. A computer genius (Colin Farrell) is recruited by a Mephistophelean-looking CIA veteran (Al Pacino) to sign up for the Agency. After a grueling and competitive course in which he is instructed in deviousness, lying and general suspicion of everybody and everything, Farrell is assigned to root out a double agent who, naturally, may well be the leggy classmate (Bridget Moynahan) to whom he has a burgeoning attraction. Spy thrillers have grown more and more convoluted over the years, and in this case, there are so many reversals and plot contortions that it's almost impossible at the end to figure out whether everyone's behavior makes sense when you re-evaluate the whole thing with hindsight. For 90 percent of the film's length, director Roger Donaldson really does keep your wits challenged and your nerves on edge. But by the end, the audience, along with Farrell's character, has been jerked around so many times that the whole thing is almost too exhausting. Opens Friday, January 31. (AK)
