In the past five years, Lyndon Johnson has gotten portrayed in movies a lot. He got played by Liev Schreiber in "The Butler", Tom Wilkinson in "Selma", Bryan Cranston in "All the Way", and now Woody Harrelson in "LBJ".*Rob Reiner's movie focuses on a few of the same things that "All the Way" did (namely Johnson's efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act in the wake of the Kennedy assassination), but focuses more on his few months before becoming vice president, and a bit on his days as veep, particularly his dislike of Bobby Kennedy. Nothing especially profound, but it makes clear that this was one brusque individual who made no pretense about who he was. In fact, there's a scene where he's conversing with Richard Russell and they casually talk about non-white people, even as the black maid serves them.It could've been a better movie, but I like how it let us see Johnson the man. It was a sad irony that right after Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act, he escalated the Vietnam War.Also starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Richard Jenkins (Nate Sr on "Six Feet Under"), Bill Pullman, and C. Thomas Howell.*The only other person who's been this popular in cinema in the past few years is Winston Churchill. He got played by Brendan Gleeson in "Into the Storm", Timothy Spall in "The King's Speech", John Lithgow on "The Crown", Brian Cox in "Churchill" and Gary Oldman in "Darkest Hour".

I really enjoyed this movie. Woody was awesome. I like the 2 storylines and i thought it was very well put together. I wanted more

BJ: Directed by Rob Reiner and written by Joey HartstoneThis biopic comes not long after Jay Roach made his version of the LBJ with Bryan Cranston entitled All The Way. That was a much better film. It focused on one aspect of his life and his presidency rather than offering just fragments of who the man might be. This was a distracting meander through the Wikipedia page of LBJ from before he ran with Kennedy as vice president to just after he became president and addressed congress.This is also one of those movies where they use make up in an attempt to make the actor look like the real person. It doesn't work. Instead they look like wax figures come to life delivering dialogue and trying to emote through their plasticine mask. The performances are fine if you're able to ignore this insane red dot of distraction staring you right in the face. Woody Harrelson is just too much himself in this film. The way he talks is so distinctive that it is almost impossible for him to disappear inside of a character. Normally I'm okay with this but that horrendous make up job is attempting to mask his normal persona which his voice betrays.This is also a rather schmaltzy dull movie. The score swells in the areas they wish you to respond at. It didn't work for me. It usually doesn't and much like the make up, this was glaring in its shameless attempt at pandering to base emotions. This could have been really good especially if it dug deep into who LBJ was as a person outside of his public persona. It tried to do that a little bit but it isn't enough.One of my favorite movies is Nixon from Oliver Stone. That movie is so visually interesting and it moves like a bullet while still retaining the humanity of someone society views as detestable. Anthony Hopkins sounds like Nixon somewhat but he focuses more on becoming who Richard Nixon was behind the scenes. This movie needed to take pointers from this film. I know it is too late for this lesson. I'm merely shouting to the ether any cosmic filmmaking god who might be listening for future presidential biopics.Skip this one and check out Bryan Cranston in All The Way instead. I give this movie a D.

The film starts on the day of the Kennedy assassination and then uses Johnson's rise to power as a subplot. Eventually they come together. The film concentrates on the passage of the Civil Rights Act and ignores everything else that happened during this time from Cuba to Vietnam. Woody Harrelson plays a colorful and slightly comedic LBJ. Bobby Kennedy (Michael Stahl-David) plays the main antagonist. The film was an interesting behind the scenes drama of the workings of government. John Kennedy was the dreamer and LBJ was never expected to deliver. Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.