Annoying, to be honest

Rating: 6/10 (7 July 2007)

Had been keen on seeing this for a while, but knew Wifey wouldn't be a fan. At the video shop though i really felt this and "Deja Vu" were the only real choices, so I went with this.
"The Good Shepherd" follows the life of Edward (Damon), a young scholar who joins the fledgling CIA. We follow him from his days at Yale through to the Communist threat. What I expected to be a gripping, thrill-a-minute movie turned out to be about as interesting as peeling vegetables. It just dragged and dragged. I'm all for long movies, but only if the action and suspense warrants it.
Matt Damon was OK, but for some reason the director (my acting idol, Robert DeNiro) put no effort into the aging process of him or Clover (Angelina Jolie), which was strange as he played a 20 something up to a 45 year old, which was really bad when his 20 something son looked only a few years younger than him.
Some of the cast, especially John Turturro (in one of his better roles, up with "Mr Deeds", "Rounders" and "Desperately Seeking Susan") , was wasted, and the espionage side of things was rarely thoroughly explored. Disappointed.