The Good Shepherd (2006)

[Movie 233 / Day 246]


An espionage thriller, The Good Shepherd is a long film and feels it. It's well acted, but I just didn't get into it at all. And whilst everybody else seemed obviously older between the current (1960s) timeline and the flashbacks (going back to the 1930s), Matt Damon didn't, at all. Which makes some scenes difficult to believe, especially those between him and his 20 year old son; where Damon looks just old enough to be his big brother, not his father.

Joe Pesci has a cameo in this and he REALLY looks old. I'm not sure if he was made up, but I didn't even recognise him at first.

My rating: 5.5 / 10
IMDB rating: 6.9 / 10
Running time: 167 mins
IMDB link

Syriana (2005)

[Movie 56 / Day 34]


So many characters and so many location jumps (some subtitled, some not) meant I actually had difficulty following this. Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention or wasn't in the right mood for something as heavy as this, but I just found it dull, dull, dull. Well acted, etc, just meh.

My rating: 5.0 / 10
IMDB rating: 7.1 / 10
Running time: 126 mins
IMDB link

The Brothers Grimm (2005)

[Movie 21 / Day 10]


The Brothers Grimm are con artists, travelling around French occupied Germany in the early 19th century convincing villagers that they can vanquish the evil spirits/witches/whatever they've made up. For a price, of course. Eventually the French catch wind of what they're doing, arrest them and offer them a choice - to be sentenced to death, or to actually go and solve the mystery of a cursed forest in which a number of children have disappeared.

Featuring lots of twisted fairy tales, the story is quite clever; although it also feels a little rushed and it's not exactly clear what's happening at times. Matt Damon and the late Heath Ledger work well together and the film features a solid supporting cast, including sexy Lena Headey and the gloriously manic Peter Stormare. Unfortunately, Jonathan Pryce pops up sporting a terrible French accent, which grated a bit.

It's OK, not brilliant, not terrible; and despite some horrible CGI effects (not exactly seamless, they stick out like a sore thumb on the bluray) it's pretty enjoyable. Probably the worst Terry Gilliam movie I've seen yet, but still, average Gilliam is better than a lot of other directors can muster.

My rating: 6.2 / 10
IMDB rating: 5.9 / 10
Running time: 118 mins
IMDB link