Sparing in artistry, brimming with craftsmanship. Lots semi-interesting historical dialogue, but with only a little contemplation or insight. Even the generic musical score seems to whisper out, "let's move this plot along quickly here, lest something deep-seated take hold." It's momentum over atmosphere--a somewhat bland retelling of objective facts. All that said, the acting is basically beyond reproach. As LBJ, Cranston turns in work superior to what garnered him an Oscar nom in Trumbo.

(THE WEST TEXAS WING)

Acting was good but found the whole thing rushed and confusing.

Excellent, but imperfect because of some lapses in the storytelling that miss out on the real historical narrative--LBJ's imposing presence had an impact more than depicted here; Cranston isn't physically large enough to pull that off, and a great filmmaker could get around that, but Roach doesn't. Moreover, MLK's influence isn't fully grasped; Roach ignored SELMA's successes in that thematic regard. The performances compensate for Roach's shortcomings, though.

I wanted to like it more, but for all the talent they hired they didn't really explain the why of the situation. Here is a slightly mad shouty guy with a line of folksy stories, he is trying to get legislation passed to end discrimination. He kinda does, hurrah. There isn't the weight, just the importance. Bit of a shame, it's still very watchable.

Great cast with Cranston and Langella as the stand-outs. An interesting story of the lesser known American President... *Good

worth seeing for Cranstron and the (re)production values. a bunch of important stuff happened in 1964, and this movie shows some of it. would've worked better as a miniseries, but i guess they wanted to catch the Nov 2016 moment.

Cranston carries this film on his back and it's worth watching for him alone, but everything else is lackluster. Nuts and bungholes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zNMo8kl7Ac

Bryan Cranston is LBJ!

All the points based purely on the performances. Like usual not really that into the whitewashing Dr. King receives but whatever. 366th movie of the year!

An excellent cast raises an otherwise uninspired filmisation of a fascinating period in American political history, though with this material to play with it is never boring. Unconvincing makeup (and prosthetics?) on the key players at times threaten to negate the performances (especially Whitford), but there is no stopping Cranston, who is a superb and galvanising LBJ. Kudos to a heartbreaking Langella, and Leo who invests her brief appearances as Ladybird with a touching stoicism.

Another one of the roles Cranston was born to play. This was an entertaining take on how LBJ tried to win the election in the turbulent times of the civil rights movement. I thought Anthony Mackie was a somewhat unconvincing MLK.

A rather unimpressive biopic considering some of the talent. LBJ will always be a great story as he was slightly insane and many of his greatest accomplishments were less than heart felt beliefs, and for that fact this is interesting enough to get by.

I've never known much about the guy, so I guess it was good to learn some stuff about him. In saying that, the film wasn't all that interesting. Director Jay Roach is clearly very interested in politics, and he presents it all just fine, but I thought Recount & Game Change were much better. Bryan Cranston was excellent, of course, and so were the rest of the cast. I think how much you'll enjoy this depends on the extent to which you're interested in in American history and politics.

Bryan Cranston's performance as Lyndon B. Johnson, which carries the film and its powerful story forward, is one of the finest of the year