• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

The Good Shepherd is a colossal waste of time

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Hitler Stole My Potato

Banned
How the hell could a movie that sounded so good with the cast filled with so much talent produce a stink bomb this big? Jesus this film is so mind numbingly boring and has little to no tension at all. 3 hours of unappealing characters whispering to each other....this is "the Godfather of spy movies"? And Matt Damon is horribly miscast as a father. The scenes between him and his grown son felt like outtakes from a catch the predator episode of Dateline.

The only good thing about the whole mess is that I just borrowed the disc from a friend and didn't spend my money on it.
 
I tend not to toot my own horn, but this was all I could muster when "reviewing" the film.
 
Meh, I thought it was all right, and it's kinda cool how the name makes sense at the end. Won't ever watch it again, though.
 
I liked it a lot. It is slow, and dialog heavy, but it moved along enough to keep my attention. The hardest part about watching the movie is that Damons character is so hard to sympathize with, and it is difficult to enjoy a movie revolving around such a character. I still found the whole thing interesting and enjoyed most of it. A top 5 film for me from last year.
 
Rented it on a whim and couldn't make it past the first 20 minutes; it just felt like it was going to be a chore to sit through. Sounds like I was right.
 
The one thing that got me was the last line (I think it was the last line).
Someone once asked me, Why don't they put a 'the' in front of CIA? And I said to him, do you put a 'the' in front of God?
Click to expand...
Er..I always hear "the CIA" so what the **** kinda point was this trying to be?
 
Nope, someone asked him why people who work for CIA don't put 'the' in front of it. That's one of the key lines of the movie.
 
Oh. Well maybe I missed that because I didn't ****ing care.
 
RevenantKioku said:
The one thing that got me was the last line (I think it was the last line).

Er..I always hear "the CIA" so what the **** kinda point was this trying to be?
Click to expand...

I think he was talking about CIA agents specifically not saying "the CIA" not the general public. It is like people in Fraternities not using the term Frat.
 
RevenantKioku said:
Oh. Well maybe I missed that because I didn't ****ing care.
Click to expand...


Obviously you did. Or maybe you frequently ask questions about things that you do not give a shit about.
 
C4Lukins said:
Obviously you did. Or maybe you frequently ask questions about things that you do not give a shit about.
Click to expand...
I'm a bizarre little man.
Actually, I meant at that point in watching the film I didn't really care. Wasn't until I thought about it afterwards that it started to bother me. :lol
 
RevenantKioku said:
I'm a bizarre little man.
Actually, I meant at that point in watching the film I didn't really care. Wasn't until I thought about it afterwards that it started to bother me. :lol
Click to expand...

It was a stupid line I must admit. That character was a bit one dimensional.
 
The movie was a convoluted mess. And I agree that the scenes between Damon and his grown son were.....awkward.
 
icecream said:
I enjoyed it. Sure it's a lot of convoluted dialogue, but that felt like the point.
Click to expand...


Agreed. The timeline was basically rendered abstract by the bizarre aging. Like someone said above, having Damon talk to his character's adult son was basically so distracting that it was closer to two brothers having a conversation.

And having Jolie be the mother about to meet her future daughter in law and all she has to show for her character's aging over the years is a mild grey tint in her hair....? Pftttt.

But in saying that the production design and period setting were excellently realised.

The performances were superb. De Niro and Gambon were both amazing. But I felt that Damon has come on leaps and bounds as an actor over the years, physically he carried himself well and seemed to inbody the role, physically changing as his character grew older and became more weary.

However the film's main strength is it's pace and scale, is also it's main hindurance. It feels like it should have been an HBO mini series. So i would recommend seeing it as something you maybe have to watch over two or three sittings.

In the end, flawed but ambitious and grand in scale
 
Yes it was, but then, who said any different? The film was panned by critics and filmgoers alike from the get-go.
 
Hitler Stole My Potato said:
How the hell could a movie that sounded so good with the cast filled with so much talent produce a stink bomb this big? Jesus this film is so mind numbingly boring and has little to no tension at all. 3 hours of unappealing characters whispering to each other....this is "the Godfather of spy movies"? And Matt Damon is horribly miscast as a father. The scenes between him and his grown son felt like outtakes from a catch the predator episode of Dateline.

The only good thing about the whole mess is that I just borrowed the disc from a friend and didn't spend my money on it.
Click to expand...


I agree 100%.
 
I have not seen the movie, but it has provided me indirect entertainment in the form of HSMP's rant! My wife also enjoyed said rant.

Srsly, I haven;t gotten around to watching the movie based on similar criticisms I have heard, plus not much liking DeNiro's last directorial outing, Bronx Tale.
 
I just watched it. I'm not sure which was worse this weekend - The Covenant or The Good Shepherd. Well, at least The Covenant knew what it was. Shepherd had so much AAA stars theres no excuse for this steaming pile. :lol
 
This movie was awesome and anyone who disagrees is a mental midget retard who's too pretentious for their own good.

Like, I saw it twice and you have to actually try hard to think that it's convoluted, boring or a mess. "OMG TEH DIALOGZ AM GET 2 ME :( " c'mon.
 
lol....I don't think I had to try hard to come to the conclusion that the film is a trainwreck. I came into it expecting (and wanting) tons of dialogue but I wasn't prepared for it to be so dull, convoluted, and delivered without any emotion whatsoever. Jesus, Damon's character is so frustrating to watch 'cause the guy is just one big blank slate the entire movie. I've seen more emotion from the animatronics in The Hall of Presidents at Disneyland than what's present here. The only time he appears remotely human is when he's with his deaf lover but that's only a small portion of the film. The rest of the film is spent watching people nod and whisper in half sentences in darkened rooms.

In the end it's a film that wants to be important and taken seriously but it just doesn't seem to know how to go about it. Good idea, but piss poor execution.
 
Personally, I really enjoyed it. I'm not a big Matt Damon fan, but his character was supposed to be lifeless. That was the point. I found it to be a very fascinating look at the beginnings of the CIA.

I went into it expecting more of a pseudo-documentary, and that's pretty much what I got.
 
Topic: yes i agree and so did smoking aces. I thought Smoking Aces was gonna be like snatch only to be let down after watching it.
 
whytemyke said:
This movie was awesome and anyone who disagrees is a mental midget retard who's too pretentious for their own good.

Like, I saw it twice and you have to actually try hard to think that it's convoluted, boring or a mess. "OMG TEH DIALOGZ AM GET 2 ME :( " c'mon.
Click to expand...
no. shitty convoluted poorly strung-together movie. lots of dialogue not equal am good, er something.
 
demon said:
no. shitty convoluted poorly strung-together movie. lots of dialogue not equal am good, er something.
Click to expand...
the entire thing was awesome, start to finish. Just cuz some people can't follow dialogue and need their hand held through the plot of a movie so they don't get confused doesn't make the movie bad.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

The greatest movie composition of all time is
41
830
Dithadder replied
The greatest nation state composition of all time is
6
278
calico replied
The Ending to the "Long Good Friday" is a classic
13
454
Queso de Grande replied
  • Poll
Winget is one of the few good things Microsoft has made in the past decade
Opinion 
5
266
ShadowNate replied
  • Poll
Flock of Seagulls, good band? Or no?
12
260
Wildebeest replied
Top Bottom