Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Everything is good in this movie expect the fact that the pace is damn slow...many things happen but still feels boring Actually if u want to c the plot then go for it but if u r habituated of sleeping Iduring movies ..i assure u,u will sleep with in 30 mins acting is better as its matt damon.but not a film what u wish it should be

This was still a tedious, slow-burn of a movie and I will admit to not always having a clear idea as to what was going on and having to pay close attention to the dialogue, as a lot of it is spoken in riddles. A cast of heavy weights is what really makes this watchable.The story starts in 1961 at the CIA covert operations during the Bay of Pigs and then follows Edward Wilson's career in flashbacks. Matt Damon takes the lead here, his character is serious, self contained and hard to get a read on. Damon seems to play a lot of these 'silent' characters.It continues to flip back and forth between the 40's and 60's; Damon is a student at Yale, his recruitment through the Skull & Bones fraternity, a shotgun marriage to Angelina Jolie (in a small role), his early spy years in London during WW2 and the blitz (which was re-created well) a couple of affairs, the cold war and disillusionment and distrust with the agency.Along the way he rubs shoulders with Alec Baldwin, Billy Crudup, Joe Pesci, John Turturro, Timothy Hutton, Patrick Wilson, Robert DeNiro, William Hurt and Eddie Redmayne plays his son.I wouldn't say this was a great movie, it tries hard, has a stellar cast, nice cinematography but takes itself too seriously and ultimately is slow, dry and confusing in sections. There is also zero action (if that's important to you). As for Matt Damon's character, as the Russian says "the silence is deafening". 1/25/15

A fictionalization of the origins of the CIA, DeNiro's second film behind the camera tells the story of Edward Wilson (Damon) who goes from university lad to civil servant to one of the founders of the CIA, which gets its baptism of fire in the heated political climate of the 1960s as it battles the threat of Communism. Of course, the paranoia and intrigue soon envelop Wilson's existence.Well filmed but less substantial and much slower than it ought to be. 'Good Shepherd' is a great idea, discussing the origins of the CIA, that is ultimately too dragged out and not incisive enough to make it stick. The political intrigue never feels engrossing enough, the tension never consistently palpable enough, the sense of how Wilson's work affects the outer world never feeling present enough. In fact, half of the film is basically a biopic about Wilson, charting his youth and civil service days, as well as his courting and marriage to Jolie's character (this a film that clocks in at over two and a half hours, may I remind you), and though not poorly written, it wears out its welcome well before we get to any secret service business. This is a real slow burner, which not always a bad thing, but here, the pacing sags a lot because of all this perfunctory material that could've been condensed to a few flashbacks or even a vignette, instead of getting to the LeCarre style spy intrigue, which is when the film does pick up, but I really question if Eric Roth's script needed to be this bulky with material.On the plus side, DeNiro is a very strong director, with some really tense sequences and intrigue in that second half, as well as a very shadowy, almost sepia aesthetic to the film which enhances that sort of 'secret archive footage' look that fits a spy tale rather well. And well, with someone like DeNiro in charge, it goes without saying he roped in a bunch of strong performers, on top of a very restrained Damon, including the likes of Alec Baldwin, Bill Hurt, John Tuturro, Michael Gambon, Joe Pesci and Timothy Hutton. This wasn't a film made with slack, but it seems like the prestige came before the substance. Well performed and mounted, and not without ambition or merits, there is simply no denying where it fell down, and that makes 'Good Shepherd' a noble but still, nonetheless, disappointment all the same.

It starts on April 16, 1961. Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) is a top American spy. When the Bay of Pigs don't go well, everybody is suspicious of a leak. Then it flashes back to 1939 Yale University. He is a student and recruited by Bill Sullivan (Robert De Niro) to spy on a professor with German ties. He is forced into a shotgun wedding with Margaret (Angelina Jolie). The war starts and he goes to Britain working for the fledging American spy agency. He would become one of the best at counter-intelligence but his family life suffers tremendously with his wife and son (Eddie Redmayne).As far as I'm concern, director Robert De Niro is 2 for 2 so far. Matt Damon puts in a deadly quiet performance. This is no Bond movie. There are no flashy gadgets and movie contraptions. This feels like the real thing. A spy would obviously not talk about spy stuff. The internalization and the paranoia seems to hit the right notes. The family dysfunction follows logically. I guess people who want the excitement will have trouble with the quietness. I personally found it intriguing.