biopics that didn't work
 

J. Edgar (2011)

Cobb with Tommy Lee Jones

The Babe as well

Agreed…just thought of another one. Julie Andrews playing Gertrude Lawrence in Star!

I keep thinking I should watch it but then I think to myself, 'Who in the world was Gertrude Lawrence?'...Then I see the 3 hour runtime and I watch something else.

I'm not really sure Hoffa really worked....

i had to google Gertrude Lawrence

Re: biopics that didn't work
 

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

I thought the movie was okay when I first saw it (I thought I learned a lot of things about Freddie and the band that I never knew), but then later, when I learned that about 90% of the stuff depicted never happened the way it was portrayed in the film, it stopped working for me.
I like biopics where the drama is built around facts and things that happened the way they happened, not just made up stuff to make an already dramatic life MORE dramatic.

It was a bit corny. Should have dealt with his death.

I read that so much of it was just outright wrong - how Freddie "met" the band (in reality they were already roommates), how Freddie met his partner, the "bad guy" manager (or whatever he was) being misrepresented to give the film a villain, the sequence of events (especially surrounding the big concert at the end), the list of pointless embellishments just went on and on to the point where this was not a biopic about Freddie Mercury, but some fictional character who never existed.

Gertrude Lawrence was a legendary Broadway star who originated the role of Anna Leonowens in the original production of The King & I. She also played Amanda Wingfield in the 1950 film version of The Glass Menagerie

]Gertrude Lawrence was a legendary Broadway star who originated the role of Anna Leonowens in the original production of The King & I. She also played Amanda Wingfield in the 1950 film version of The Glass Menagerie. Of course neither of these credits are even mentioned in Star! She also starred as Liza Elliott in the original stage stage version of Lady in the Dark. Ginger Roger’s played Liza in the film version.

I’ve heard nothing but bad things about Hoffa

Any of the biopics which show up around Oscar season could fit this category, tbh.

Re: biopics that didn't work
 

Oppenheimer. Too Choppy.

The first half was good.

A three hour musical.

Re: biopics that didn't work
 

The Doors (1991)
JFK (1990)

Agree with The Doors
Ghandhi I found too basic in its approach
The Aviator I liked but I never liked Di Caprio as Hughes. I didn’t think Kate Beckinsale was the right actress for Ava Gardner either, for that matter.

Re: biopics that didn't work
 

Walk The Line

I know Hollywood likes to glamorise stuff and I know that "sex sells", but Joaquin Phoenix was way too pretty to play Johnny Cash.
I guess it still kinda works as a fantasy.