Seems thoroughly conflicted about whether it actually buys what it's selling.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 27, 2007

In a mystery worthy of the CIA, The Good Shepherd ends up being both too long and too short.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2007

Not a film everyone will like. But those who do will appreciate De Niro's insistence on accurate detail.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 23, 2007

De Niro deserves credit for the broad, ambitious canvas he's worked on, but his movie is just as mechanical and humourless as his protagonist.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 23, 2007

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

| Feb 23, 2007

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.

| Feb 23, 2007

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

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 23, 2007

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

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 23, 2007

Infused with that glow of earnest deliberation characteristic of liberal Hollywood when focusing its well-paid talents on a worthy cause.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 23, 2007

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.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 22, 2007

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.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 20, 2007

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

| Feb 15, 2007

De Niro juggles the myriad big-picture parts with reserved professionalism; it's the central character, ironically, that's the movie's Achilles' heel.

| Original Score: 3/6 | Feb 3, 2007

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.

| Jan 3, 2007

The out-of-order sequencing adds little in terms of thematic structure, and thwarts all attempts to get swept up in the film's narrative flow.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 30, 2006

De Niro seems to be good with actors but less successful at stringing a movie together, and keeping it together, scene by scene.

Full Review | Dec 30, 2006

The mesmerizing espionage thriller chronicles the inception and ascendancy of the CIA.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 22, 2006

It's like watching a fish stare at you from inside the magnifying wall of an aquarium, and about as exciting.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 22, 2006

It's a long (nearly three hours), deliberately paced film, and an intelligent one.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 22, 2006

Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd is a remarkable study of the corrosive effects of fear and power on an establishment insider who puts duty above all else.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 22, 2006