The Good Shepherd

Things we love: Spy movies. Things we don't: Two-hour-and-45-minute spy movies that move slower than old people screw. Robert De Niro directs this looooong epic about the birth of the CIA. Rather than sticking to the things that make spy movies great, like suspense and mystery, it follows around blank-slate operative Matt Damon through his really boring life. Some decent actors show up here, including Angelina Jolie as Damon's distant wife. But the interesting parts that could have created a semi-compelling plot are separated by endless attempts at drama. They could have easily cut an hour off the running time and it would have been tip-top. But instead it's like the cold war of flicks, where there's a lot of intention but nothing really happens. To top it off, the only extra included are 16 minutes of deleted scenes. 'Cause if there was one thing this Shepherd needed was more scenes.