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Movies / Upcoming / The Good Shepherd
The Good Shepherd

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The Good Shepherd (2006)

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Reviews Counted:161

Fresh:90

Rotten:71

Average Rating:6.1/10

Consensus: This fictitious CIA origin film is an overlong, tedious effort that leaves viewers with more questions than answers.

Runtime: 2 hrs 48 mins

Genre: Dramas

US Box Office: $59,839,040

Synopsis: With THE GOOD SHEPHERD, Robert De Niro (A BRONX TALE) makes an ambitious return to the director's chair. A labor of love for Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (FORREST GUMP), the film tells an... With THE GOOD SHEPHERD, Robert De Niro (A BRONX TALE) makes an ambitious return to the director's chair. A labor of love for Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (FORREST GUMP), the film tells an epic, fictionalized account of how the Central Intelligence Agency was born. Matt Damon plays Edward Wilson, a reserved young man who graduated from Yale in the late 1930s. His membership in the exclusive, hidden Skull and Bones society led him away from poetry and into a relationship with the federal government, who recruited him to help them on several covert operations. Roth's script alternates between Wilson's gradual emergence as a genuine government operative in the early 1940s and the infamous Bay of Pigs conflict in the early 1960s. Along the way, he has a sweet romance with a pretty deaf girl (a sparkling Tammy Blanchard) and ends up marrying the woman he impregnates (Angelina Jolie) out of a strong sense of duty. Throughout the film, the emergence of a mysterious tape haunts Wilson, who is determined to uncover the truth behind a leak in his secret organization. Production designer Jeannine Claudia Oppewall (L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN) and costume designer Ann Roth (THE ENGLISH PATIENT, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY) faithfully recreate these earlier periods in American history, while the imagery of Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson (J.F.K., THE AVIATOR) casts a warm, stately glow upon De Niro's assembled cast of luminaries (including Alec Baldwin, Michael Gambon, William Hurt, Billy Crudup, and Joe Pesci). The result is a production that recalls Francis Ford Coppola's THE CONVERSATION and Steven Spielberg's MUNICH. [More]

Starring: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Joe Pesci, John Turturro

Starring: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Joe Pesci, John Turturro, Keir Dullea, Alec Baldwin, Michael Gambon, Billy Crudup, William Hurt, Liya Kebede, Gabriel Macht, Jason Patric, Eddie Redmayne, Sándor Técsy

Director: Robert De Niro

Director: Robert De Niro
Producer: Jane Rosenthal
Studio: Universal Pictures

[See More Credits]

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1 - 4 of 6

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Reviews for The Good Shepherd

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21 - 40 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
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Touches are just enough to earn The Good Shepherd a third star. But De Niro might want to stick to acting in future.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
02/23/07
David Edwards
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

A wan, muted film that is never less than interesting, but rarely more than that either.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
02/23/07
Sukhdev Sandhu
Sukhdev Sandhu
Daily Telegraph

It's well built but the Matt Damon character remains blank and too young to be convincing. It's solid, but like Damon himself it's a bit dull.

Full Review Source: BBC Radio Five Live | comment Comment
02/23/07
Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode
BBC Radio Five Live

A very dark, murky film, resentfully critical of the dysfunctional CIA family.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
02/23/07
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Damon's shirts are always crisp, but he has the charisma of a perfectly groomed corpse.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
02/23/07
James Christopher
James Christopher
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A serious film about a seriously relevant subject that, despite its flaws, fulfils much of its over-reaching ambition.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
02/23/07
Billy Mowbray
Billy Mowbray
Channel 4 Film

Polished spy drama is a classy affair.

Full Review Source: Sunday Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
02/22/07
Mark Adams
Mark Adams
Sunday Mirror [UK]

De Niro's second film features terrific performances and several impressive scenes, but he appears to have forgotten to hire an editor.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
02/22/07
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Well-crafted and well-acted, but ever-so-slightly worthy and strangely unaffecting. Given the track record of the CIA, it probably ought to be angrier.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
02/22/07
Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Intelligent, yes, politically astute, stuffed to the gills with A-list acting talent (overstuffed in fact, there are cameos a go-go), but too frozen with a sense of its own seriousness to grip.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
02/20/07
Paul Arendt
Paul Arendt
BBC

The film’s watchable enough if you’re indulgent of its flaws but at 167 minutes it does tax the patience.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/15/07
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

Overlong and a little overstuffed, but De Niro’s ambitious tale of the CIA’s Cold War genesis is still worthy, smart and relevant.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
02/14/07
Jeff Dawson
Jeff Dawson
Total Film

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
02/03/07
Joshua Rothkopf
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York

A slick and classy production, dripping with talent and expensive production values.

Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | comment Comment
01/13/07
Robert Roten
Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
01/13/07
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

The Good Shepherd feels authentic because it keeps everything on a human scale. There's no mythologizing the agency; there's just a solid depiction of how it was shaped by human beings.

Full Review Source: Aisle Seat | comment Comment
01/10/07
Mike McGranaghan
Mike McGranaghan
Aisle Seat

It's a risky narrative strategy, and if it's not always riveting, it is apt: defined by his secrets, Edward recedes from his own story.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
01/05/07
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Hardly a lightning bolt, and hardly one that deserves 160 deadening minutes of misdirection and repetition.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
01/03/07
Walter Chaw
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

At nearly three hours, the reach is so vast the movie never finds its shape.

Full Review Source: Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) | comment Comment
01/03/07
Mark Palermo
Mark Palermo
Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

No previous American film has ventured into this still largely unknown territory with such authority and emotional detachment. For this reason alone, The Good Shepherd is must-see viewing.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
01/03/07
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
 
 
21 - 40 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
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