Robert De Niro ventured behind the camera for The Good Shepherd, starring Matt Damon as an inductee of the newly formed CIA. It's an ambitious period thriller, but most critics felt that it was "overstuffed" and drawn out. Perhaps it was the two-and-a-half hour runtime that put moviegoers off on its initial release. In the end, the film only scraped back $60m of its $85m budget.

Shearing The Shepherd

It's usually bad news when a director can't be bothered to sit through his own film and give us a commentary. Of course, De Niro is notoriously shy, but the absence of even a five-minute interview to support a film that he toiled over for many years speaks volumes. Only seven deleted scenes accompany the film on DVD and, not surprisingly, they all flow at a very leisurely pace.

For all its flaws we do concede that De Niro successfully captures the ominous Cold War mood. The undercurrent of suspicion in the relationship between Edward (Damon) and brother-in-law John (Gabriel Macht) is fleshed out a little more in a couple of these scenes. Of course Edward is suspicious of pretty much everyone. The man they call Valentin (played by British actor John Sessions) is also called upon to prove his identity in an unnecessary garnish of red herring.

Woolly Bits

The remaining scenes don't add much. Domestic upheaval allows Angelina Jolie to capitalise further on her million-dollar pout and there's a longwinded explanation of cryptography courtesy of the aforementioned Mr Sessions. If only there was room in the story for his fantastic Joe Pesci impression (made famous on BBC 2's Stella Street). The Good Shepherd could certainly use a dose of that mad dog energy to build some excitement. As it is, we'd rather watch back-to-back episodes of One Man And His Dog.

EXTRA FEATURES

The Good Shepherd DVD is released on Monday 18th June 2007.