Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

not as good as all the hype

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

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".

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.

LBJ in many ways parallels Robert Caro's book 'The Passage of Power' which tells the story of Lyndon Johnson at the tail end of his days as Senate Majority Leader, Vice-President and President up until August 1964 with the passing of the Civil Rights Act. Those interested in this story would be well-advised to read the book before watching this movie but even for those who don't, the film is about as historically accurate as you can get for a two hour effort. Many of the quotes in the script are true to words actually spoken by Johnson at one point or another in his career and the scenes between the Kennedys and Johnson are not far off the mark either with my only gripe being that Johnson's speech on civil rights given at Gettysburg in May 1963 was omitted from the film but one that was given a week before JFK's landmark speech on the same topic. My impression of the film is that overall it was done as well as could be without straining to bore an audience, and a select audience at that, who would watch this movie however I still believe that Bryan Cranston gave the best performance of LBJ in All The Way and that the over-reliance on makeup and prosthetics on Harrelson and even Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lady Bird Johnson was somewhat a distraction. Indeed I'd say Reiner made Harrelson look like LBJ would've by 1968 after the weight of the office and the war in Vietnam had taken its toll rather the way he appeared in the early 1960s but these are minor quibbles. In the last analysis movies like this will never measure up entirely to the written material out there that provides far more context and understanding of the events described. For example Johnson's reluctance to submit a civil rights bills in late 1963 to Congress along with other measures Kennedy had sent up was rooted in the fact that LBJ knew that every other bill would be either stalled or killed along with civil rights legislation which he would insist be the only thing on the congressional agenda. This explains why in January 1964 he made it a priority to get JFK's tax cuts passed before he would put the full weight of the effort into a civil rights bill. Fundamentally he understood legislative strategy but JFK would never use Johnson in that way because he instinctively knew that by delegating the legislative agenda to Johnson he would be giving him a power centre that would make Kennedy reliant on his vice-president to get anything done and that was something no sitting president could abide by. Still its good to see LBJ getting his proper due for his achievements that overshadowed anything JFK did and may never have done had he lived. Much changed on November 22, 1963, some for the worse but also much for the better.

Very watchable. No real surprises. I'm not sure how accurate the portrayal is but Woody Harrelson is very good and holds the viewer throughout the entire movie. I don't think it will ever be the most revered politic drama ever but not a bad way to kill a couple of hours.