The Good Shepherd is a rich, sprawling film stuffed with fine performances and capable of expanding to take in vast chunks of history or narrowing to concentrate on delicate human moments.
Comment
12/22/06
The Good Shepherd (2006)
56
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
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... [More]
Starring: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Joe Pesci, John Turturro
Director: Robert De Niro
Reviews for The Good Shepherd
81 - 100 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
It's a rich concept -- The Godfather, Part II set in Langley, Va. -- and it might have been a classic if someone like Francis Ford Coppola had come out of semi-retirement to direct it.
12/22/06
Sad to say, but Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd, an ambitious and starry but lamentably interminable attempt to trace the beginnings of the Central Intelligence Agency, may well have you counting sheep.
12/22/06
If the lives of CIA spies are really this dreary, they may as well keep their secrets to themselves.
12/22/06
The Good Shepherd, for all its noble intentions, manages to make even espionage boring.
12/22/06
The Good Shepherd is the film Francis Ford Coppola should have directed instead of The Godfather Part III.
12/22/06
An intricate, deliberately paced 2-hour and 37-minute work that not only quietly presents this quicksand world but also makes us feel what it would be like to live in it.
12/22/06
Top CriticDamon once again demonstrates his flair for creating inscrutably devious characters.
12/22/06
If you’re looking for action, The Good Shepherd will be a letdown. But as a deep meditation on the nature of espionage, it’s a minor classic.
12/22/06
Stellar cast, plodding storytelling.
12/22/06
The Good Shepherd is a painstakingly composed film, as planned and programmed and puzzled over as tactical maneuvers on a chessboard.
12/22/06
The Good Shepherd is a flat draft of history that looks at the Central Intelligence Agency's early years through the horn-rimmed gaze of a fictional spook.
12/22/06
It's surprising that this three-hour tour of thirty-some years of history moves as well as it does.
12/22/06
Painfully overlong, weighed down by its own self-conscious seriousness and filled with nonsurprises, The Good Shepherd will appeal only to those who like dreary tales filled with unlikable characters.
12/22/06
The Good Shepherd is a quietly sweeping, intensely intelligent and nail-biting history of the Central Intelligence Agency.
12/22/06
Better than average, but barely.
12/22/06
While De Niro's direction is certainly stylish, the frosty performances are off-putting.
12/22/06
Moving from 1939 to 1961, an incident-heavy script finds enough material to keep several movies percolating, yet it seldom reaches a boil.
12/22/06
DeNiro's CIA tale shows some good film-making but simply too much of it.
12/22/06
Robert De Niro sat at the feet of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and learned his lessons well.
12/22/06
Latest News for The Good Shepherd
July 07, 2008:
De Niro Looking for More Good Shepherds 
It played to lukewarm reviews and middling box office, but Robert De Niro still wants to follow up The Good Shepherd with a pair of sequels. More...
March 04, 2008:
Rush Hour 3 Takes '07 DVD Rental Crown
It may not have been quite the box-office phenomenon that its predecessors were -- and critics may have disliked it enough to keep it down at 20 percent on the Tomatometer --... More...
December 20, 2007:
Box Office Guru Preview: Five New Films Fight For Holiday Cheer
Moviegoers are in for a feast as studios will unleash a wide menu of new options on Friday trying to reach holiday patrons on the weekend before Santa comes to town. With so... More...
January 15, 2007:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: "Stomp" Steps All Over New Releases
Stomping into the number one spot over the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend was the college dance drama "Stomp the Yard," which grossed an estimated $22M in... More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
Virtuoso Vistas of The Lovely Bones
Techland examines the visual splendor of Peter Jackson's upcoming film.
Animated Oscar?
Hollywood.com ponders whether or not an animated film could win Best Picture.
Wes Anderson on Fox
The director talks about puppetry perfection and his film, Fantastic Mr. Fox
Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Twitter
Get all the latest movie updates, reviews, interviews and features here.
Competitions
Win G.I. Joe Prizes
DVDs, toys and more to give away from the hit action film.
Win Wild Things Tickets
Free double passes to join Spike Jonze's wild rumpus.
Win 9 tickets
20 double passes to win to the new animated film, produced by Tim Burton.
IGN RSS Feeds