Wonderful character development!

One of the best films i have seen

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

My Fellow Americans (1996): Dir: Peter Segal / Cast: Jack Lemmon, James Garner, Dan Aykroyd, Lauren Bacall, John Heard: Missed opportunity that rehashes road movie clichés. Title regards unity that must be set by two ex-presidents who do not seem to agree on anything. Jack Lemmon and James Garner play two former Presidents who hate each other but are brought together when scandal threatens their lives. What follows are typical clichés where they bicker before a predictable outcome. Director Peter Segal does well but he has made funnier movies such as The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. Here the final insult comes at the hands of the screenwriter whose only aid is the effective leads. The production values are cheap and mainly rely on the two leads to spark any life into it. Lemmon and Garner form a fine chemistry. Lemmon is the money saver while Garner is a ladies man. Together they not only must band together, but they also face the harsh reality of life outside the White House. Dan Aykroyd is flat as the current President and Lauren Bacall as a former First Lady utters a few good one liners but otherwise she is underused. The film contains an inspiring message or reality check regarding society and its condition beyond the campaigns. Unfortunately it is a cliché filled road movie less entertaining than a campaign speech. Score: 4 / 10

Interesting premise -- two genuine ex presidents (Lemon and Garner) on the run from a murderous cabal in the White House and the NSA. They accidentally find themselves in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in North Carolina, a state which is not ALL nowhere, and must somehow reach Lemon's Presidential Library in Ohio for the hidden evidence that will save them. The evidence is not there, so they must travel back to Washington somehow and meet the problem head on.That the evidence isn't there is symptomatic of the film's weaknesses. The whole trip from North Carolina to Ohio was pointless except that it gave the two ex rivals a chance to have comic encounters with red necks, the unemployed, illegal immigrants, and the like. The business with the imminent scandal about kick backs is just a peg to hang a funny adventure on. After enough amusing episodes you forget what the whole deal was about anyway and just enjoy the performances of Lemon and Garner. There are a few brief scenes of credible pathos too. More than once, Lemon almost breaks down when he looks in the mirror and notices that he's aged.And Garner is given a brief but bombastic flag-waving populist speech that's unconvincing, yet Lemon comments that if Garner had spoken like that during the debates, he, Lemon, would have lost by a wider margin. Lemon is sincere, but it would have been much funnier if he'd said that he, Lemon, would have WON the race. These guys are two throat-cutting rascals and yet the audience is supposed to applaud a lusty, go-get-'em panegyric that's straight out of the Boy Scout's Handbook.It has its diverting moments and gets a number of chuckles but it's determinedly lower middle-brow. It has some vulgarity but it's not used to great comic effect. The script flirts (twice) with "the f word" but doesn't use it. Mostly the situations and characters are cute. It all turns into an amusing action movie at the end -- at the happy end.The two principals are appealing, one a Republican, the other a Democrat, but the cracks are equally distributed between, say, Kennedy's womanizing and Ford's clumsiness. Garner is the more likable of the two, perhaps because he looks and sounds more like a political manipulator, and perhaps because it's sad to see how old and stiff Jack Lemon has become. Two ladies are on brief and welcome display, both stunning: Marg Helgenberger and Sela Ward. The most compelling character is the villainous Everett McGill, the spawn of Demos. He has a skull-like face and his hair almost reaches his eyebrows. The arrangement doesn't leave much room for a forehead.It's not an insulting flick. It's not bad. But you can almost hear the joints creaking as it reaches for laughs, many of which elude it.

Those two old pros, Jack Lemmon and James Garner, in their only film together provide quite a few laughs in what would normally be a very serious subject, a constitutional crisis.Two former presidents, Lemmon a Republican and Garner a Democrat, have a real nasty rivalry going. But when current president Dan Ackroyd tries to pin a kickback in a defense contract scandal on his fellow Republican Lemmon things get good and nasty. Garner gets into it when he starts checking on which Republican really is the crooked one and stumbles on the murdered defense contractor.After that when the two presidents are nearly killed when a government helicopter blows up, they are on the run. They are forced into an alliance of convenience.Despite this description, it is in fact a comedy with these two men who even as ex-Presidents are used to having everything done for them. Quite amusing indeed when they're forced out on their own.It's funny, but there are some trenchant comments about the state of politics and life in general in America at the turn of the new millennium. Lauren Bacall is in this oh too briefly as Lemmon's wife and Dan Ackroyd is the current president with John Heard as his Dan Quayle like Vice President.Republican or Democrat most viewers will vote thumbs up for My Fellow Americans.

When this film first came out, the trailers did not interest me in the least. I actually avoided seeing it so as to avoid seeing two cool actors make asses out of themselves (in a bad way). The film was rather poorly marketed, in other words. It looked like Beavis and Butthead with two old guys (in a bad way).In other words, I'm glad this was the film shown on an Amtrak train a few years back. I think I was laughing harder than anyone else in my car. Frankly, I think a few jokes sailed over people's heads. I remember in particular that the hilarious mispronunciation of "facade" by Dan Ackroyd's clueless VP didn't merit a titter. A few people looked at me oddly when I laughed at it.This isn't brilliant film-making, mind you. It's simply a vehicle for a lot of very talented comic actors to have fun with some ripe material. It may dip into preachiness now and again, but that is always redeemed ASAP by an entertaining round of rapid-fire bickering.On an aside, I have to say that I've been in love with Lauren Bacall since I saw The Big Sleep for the first time. It was great to see her in this and even greater to see that she still has a knack for the sharply delivered one-liner. Also, for someone born in the 20s she looks amazing. You heard me right. At 82 years, Lauren Bacall is still hot. Bogie was a very lucky man.