jlipin

The trailer for this movie lured me to the theater, and I expected something pretty gritty & thrilling. I've gotta disagree with this casting though. John Leguizamo was SO GOOD. He sold his performance. Gritty, real, and I bought it. Diane Kruger, same thing. But Bryan Cranston? I have no idea what they were thinking. I just didn't buy it. The tension never felt real with his acting. It was so weak. Had they cast this with the right guy - I'm thinking Josh Brolin in Sicario - this would have been epic. I know there's only a set amount of great actors so I can't expect Gyllenhaal, Christian Bale, and Mcconaughy in every flick but I really had my hopes up for this one.

Very well-made flick. Cycling scenes are authentic, so are the settings. Acting by Ben Foster was amazing, maybe a little too intense. Yeah it's pretty clear that Armstrong was an intense dude but I've followed along with his career, his social media, his accomplishments, and when he gets the endorphin rush I've seen he can be a pretty happy guy. Only wish there was more of a backstory to Armstrong's life and more detail to the last few years before he ended up confessing. Highly doubt the average fan knows actually how bad of a cheat Contador is/was - every bit if not worse than Armstrong. Also, during his comeback, Lance claims - and other cyclists claim - that he came back as a clean rider. Deep down, I think he hates that he had to dope. But to choose cycling as your profession, and to try to feed a half-billion dollar charity, the only way to turn blood to dollars was The Program.

I can't stand when ratings/reviews are rigged in order to get people to watch or buy something. If you look at the 'top 1000 voters' for this movie, which are people who actually watch movies, they give it a 6.9. How in the heck did this get an 8+? (Well - it's because the movie producers were smart and got a bunch of people to review and rate the movie ahead of time...) The acting and writing is dreadful. Story goes absolutely nowhere and is pointless. I was at least hoping the water bed had something to do with anything. But of course, it didn't. Actors look like they're 35 years old, and you want us to believe they're college freshmen? Has the director ever been to a bar before or seen how awkward real people interact with each other at that age? Does the director know that people at bars or at parties are usually drunk, instead of the eloquently speaking, perfectly-dressed people in this movie? Really pointless, waste of a good amount of money to have seen this in theaters.