1. Stoic, simmering and almost film noir, The Good Shepherd creates a very dangerous and intriguing world
2. The film finally resembles nothing so much as its most persistent symbol: an objet d'art crafted to impress with empty trickery.
3. While [De Niro is] a whiz with actors, he's no Francis Coppola, and his calculated, observant tone grows cold.
4. Unfortunately a heavy pace and an unnecessary time-jumping device mar "The Good Shepherd." That said, the intricate story is blessed with an intelligent script (by Eric Roth) and brilliant performances.
5. The Good Shepherd is not an easily embraceable picture, but the story it tells is simply too compelling to dismiss, even at its ugliest.
6. The Good Shepherd leaves you longing for the other, better political thrillers it evokes.
7. If you think George Tenet's Central Intelligence Agency was a disaster, wait until you see Robert De Niro's torpid, ineffectual movie about the history of the agency, The Good Shepherd.
8. Perhaps it's fitting that a movie about the early CIA be tangled and opaque, but this drama loosely based on the life of uberspook James Angleton verges on incoherence.
9. Matt Damon is so good at action, you wish he'd been given some here. Instead, buttoned up in his company-man suits and snap-brim hats and Clark Kent specs, he's all inwardness, an impenetrable blank.
10. Seems to have been inspired by two of De Niro's more celebrated movies, 'The Godfather Part II' and 'Once Upon a Time in America'; if it lacks the bravura set pieces of those films, it at least unfolds with its own whispery integrity.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?
Though ambitious and confidently directed by Robert De Niro, The Good Shepherd is ultimately a tedious drama that holds few surprises and succumbs to self-seriousness.