Fresh and Exciting

An absolute waste of money

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

I'm a cycling fan and a film lover. I cheered for Armstrong, followed his downfall, read all the books (Walsh, Hamilton, Landis etc). The true story has plenty of drama and incredible characters. However, this movie, which I really wanted to like, is a rather anaemic version of that story. Ben Foster works hard but just isn't as impactful, as imposing or as dramatic as Armstrong himself. Events move too quickly to really get the measure of them. Perhaps it's too big a story to tell, but the documentary versions do better.

As a sports fan, this movie involving one of the darkest scandals in its history was something I had to see. Having watch it, I can say I enjoyed it but felt as though it could have been better and the story could have had more depth to it. Ben Foster is nothing short of a revelation in his portrayal of the controversial figure of Lance Armstrong and his many faces, the public charismatic sportsman and champion in the fight against cancer to the behind the scenes ruthless bully who threatened to destroy anyone or anything who got in his way. Likewise Chris O'Dowd as the journalist David Walsh who steadfast refused to give into intimidation and didn't allow himself to be fooled by the deception. Jesse Plemons performance as the conflicted Floyd Landis who played a key role in the investigation was also a positive for the movie, likewise Dustin Hoffman as Bob Hamman.One issue I had with the movie was the skimming over of a few key events. Not the cycling as such, but the USADA investigation which would expose the extent of Armstrong's cheating, Armstrong's legal attempts to block it, and the death threats issued to those involved were covered almost as an after thought near the end of the movie, this should've been given more time in the movie as it was a key element in the whole affair. One frustrating aspect of this movie was almost the complete omission of two key players in the story, Greg LeMond, the ex-TDF winner who was almost ruined by Armstrong because he dared to speak out against him, and Travis Tygart, the head of the USADA investigation which ultimately exposed the doping scandal, who as previously mentioned was subjected to a number of death threats, were barely mentioned. Considering the part they played in the whole saga, this was a big error on the part of the movie.This movie was enjoyable and fascinating, but I felt it was partially undermined by skimming over several key events and the omission of some key people.

I remember when the whole Lance Armstrong story broke that he was going to confess there were a lot of differing opinions on the matter. A surprisingly high percentage of people seemed to see nothing wrong with what he did, and would have been happy for him to keep his Tour de France titles. Personally, I have zero interest in cycling. To me it is possibly the dullest sport known to man, and I couldn't care less about the athletes and what they're doing. The Armstrong case caught my attention though. Because here was a man who had cheated his way to the top, and yet clearly had zero conscience about what he had done. Now that takes a really sick type of person. Sure, he eventually came out and admitted all, but you could tell he was only saying these things because he was backed into a corner. The quote at the end of this film from 2015 stating that he still believes he won those titles, sums him up to me. Pure scum.The movie itself was entertaining enough. It chose to take a very dry and almost reenactment-style approach. It's not like your typical film where relationships are formed over a period of time and conflicts are dealt with as they arise. Instead, 'The Program' just gives us the facts of the story, and that's that. I didn't actually mind the style though. I would've been angry if the film was an extra 20 minutes long because they needed to show how he came to fall in love with his wife. It certainly wouldn't work for every type of film, but for this it did the trick quite nicely.I had trouble buying into Ben Foster as Armstrong. They have a very similar face, but Foster just doesn't come across as an athlete to me. His acting itself was impressive enough, considering this wasn't really a film that's ever going to give an actor a lot of scenes to show off what he has. 'The Program' is a film that will entertain and inform anyone who has an interest in the Lance Armstrong story, that's for sure. However, for anyone who couldn't care less, I'd advise staying away.

I was a bit surprised to see this biopic had a rating of 6.5 after I watched it. I find most IMDb reviews far too generous, but in my opinion, this rating was about right.its a solid bio-pic that tells an interesting story of a cheater and his downfall. I am generally not very interested in sports, but I do like true stories of people and their weakness, and Armstong is a flawed character, who even in disgrace and failure never seemed able to really grasp the enormity of his flaws. The movie was coherent, well scripted, an d reasonably acted. and I've looked at the reviews that have marked it lower than that, and most of them complain that its is not as powerful in the end as it should be. I guess, to some extent, I can see where they are coming from. Who can argue that the the level of dishonesty displayed by this man should have ended in a total downfall of heart-wrenching magnitude? Like Armstrong (eventually), the movie tells it like it is and doesn't contemplate the full enormity of the situation for dramatic effect.