The investigation of a crime always begets the question "who benefits?" The murder of JFK is no exception.While this could be an interesting fictional story of a new president after the assasination of his former boss, it is meant to portray LBJ and it does so in a very positive light.Nothing is said about his real personality and professional life. The movie is simply a fairy tale about a man who was the chief beneficiary of a heinous crime.Read Roger Stone's "The Man who Killed Kennedy" for a highly documented true story of LBJ.As a fictional movie it is entertaining, perhaps even gripping but the utter lack of historical facts about LBJs life puts this movie in the category of propoganda.I'll give it three stars for being entertaining.

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.

My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library. A gripping movie from beginning to end, kudos for letting us see a bit more inside the iconic LBJ.I was a freshman in college in 1963 when the key events occurred, President Kennedy was killed in Dallas then the Vice President, LBJ, was sworn is as the new POTUS. As a young man I didn't pay too much attention to who this LBJ was but over the years I have heard that he was a relentless deal-maker and used a very forceful style to get things done.Woody Harrelson with appropriate makeup and prosthetics is in the role of LBJ, Lyndon B. Johnson, and he carries it very well. Harrelson has a very distinctive voice and early on all I saw was Woody, but as the movie moved along I started to actually see LBJ. This will not be a problem for the younger audience who never had any appreciable exposure to the real LBJ.All in all a totally enjoyable movie of an interesting and seminal time in the history of the USA, his first great achievement was pushing through one of Kennedy's prime focuses and having the Civil Rights Bill passed.

Great acting all around. The rest of this movie is a total train wreck. Directing is horrendous. Editing is pointless and annoying. Screenplay is absurdly dumbed down and misses some of the most important time periods both for the man and the country. Flashing back and forth to the point of dizziness. Music is saccharine. A truly shameful effort