The awful Lance Armstrong deception in an entertaining and faithful biopic. Acting and production are great. Better than the documentary The Armstrong Lie which was too soft on the cheat. We get to see how it was done and the number of people involved - which is staggering! The weakness of the press and the authorities is shown up. Based upon a book by an Irish journalist who revealed the truth and unbelievably got sued by Armstrong for doing so. Well acted by the lead who has Armstrong's mannerisms and arrogance down to a T.

Foster is solid in the lead role here, and it's nice that we get to see all the shots of Lance doping that we never got to see before, even if it's not real.Those two aspects give the film a little edge, but not much else does.The racing sequences are a total loss. A mix mash of real footage, that looks like grainy real footage, and not Foster, and then there's the film footage which has zero style. THere's nothing interesting at all about the racing sequences. Also, the film really leaves out some of the juicy stuff. Wanted to see more from those that threw him under the bus. The Wife(betsy?), and our co-star journalists' story is practically empty. The film, imo, just fails to capitalize on so much here. It's not a bad film by any means, but it's not a good one either. Frears has really been going downhil for a while now. I keep going-in thinking I'm going to get a fresh version of "The Hit" or "Grifters" and I keep coming out with some really mediocre films. If not terrible(see:Lay the Favorite). The Queen was decent( a bit overrated though). Philomena was alright. The last one I really liked from him was "High Fidelity", and that was 16 years ago."The Program" has as many problems and glaring omissions as it does positive qualities. Foster is good. Nice to see all the needles and blood. But, I was afraid I was going to get what I got, which was a film that really suffers next to the brilliant documentary, "Lance Armstrong:Stop at Nothing". I give that one an 8.5, and this a 5/10.Even though Foster did a good job and looks a lot like Lance in the face - his build really doesn't fit the part at any time, even with the physical changes he made throughout the film. That's a minor quip though, as the major quips are just not capitalizing on so many of the other characters who were seriously involved in this downfall, and not making the film 'exciting' in any way whatsoever. Making this about the journalist, and then not developing that character AT ALL.

"If we keep cheering loud enough maybe it will go away and no one will ever hear the unwelcome question. Is this real, or is it dope?" Lance Armstrong (Foster) is the greatest cyclist in history. He wins the Tour de France year after year and has become the poster boy for the sport. Everyone loves him and is inspired by him and what he stands for. David Walsh (O'Dowd) begins to wonder how he wins so easily and suspects that it isn't legit. This is a story that everyone knows the basics of. What I didn't know was how early he was suspected, and how everyone wanted to hide it and not talk about it. Walsh really took heat for suggesting what was happening but stuck with it. Armstrong was as smooth as he could be in dodging and deflecting the questions about his use. I actually liked this movie a lot more than I expected to and even though it didn't really drop any bombshells it is still interesting and very much worth seeing. Overall, a movie that is entertaining and very much worth seeing even though everyone knows what happened. I actually recommend this. I give this a B.

Greetings from Lithuania."The Program" (2015) was very entertaining movie, that told true story about fall from grace. Ben Foster was excellent as Lance Armstrong and director Stephen Frears did a great job in creating this superbly paced and involving movie - at running time 1 h 40 min this movie never drags and is very involving. Now i wasn't a fan of Lance Armstrong nor cycling sport, but i read some stories after it was all revealed. Overall, "The Program" is great biopic, not the one Lance Armstrong envisioned of course when he was on the top. It shows the shameful dark side of this legendary athlete and how his myth burned. Very solid movie.