The Good Shepherd (2006) (P&S)

The Good Shepherd Has Almost No Flock

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jun 11, 2007

Pros: There use of the actual footage from before and after the Bay of Pigs incident added a little, if anything, to the movie. This has been done and redone too many times after Good Night and Good Luck.

Cons: The movie drags on and on for almost three hours, jumping around enough to almost completely lose the plot.

The Good Shepherd is a specialty film, hands down. This kind of movie is intended for fans of the mystery/cloak and dagger genre. For those that are not fans, it is a difficult film. For those who are not big fans of this genre of movies, it is a far too long two hour and forty-eight minute movie that jumps around from point to point with very little definite connection between points. The only thing that lets audiences know when the movie is shifting points is a little note at the bottom corner of the screen telling the date and location of the scene.

Given, the movie has a star studded cast (Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, John Turturro, William Hurt, etc.) but even such star power does little to enhance the movie. The plot, which is basically that the infamous Bay of Pigs incident in Cuba led to the creation of the CIA, is marred by all the constant jumping around, including into and out of the plotline itself. While The Departed (Damon's other movie from 2006) was a justified hit, this follow up was a sad, slow, muddy work that likely will be forgotten for the most part in the annals of movie history, except by fans of this specific genre.