It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Brilliant and touching

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The premise of the film is that current office-holder President William Haney (Dan Ackroyd) was involved in an illegal kick-back scheme, giving contracts to a defense company for cash when he was vice president. To prevent the downfall of Haney's presidency, his assistant Carl Witnaur (Bradley Whitford) creates an ingenious cover-up: pin it on former president Russell Kramer (Jack Lemmon). Now while kick-backs are viewed as essentially like bribes, these transgressions may pale in comparison to the nightmare of a Donald Trump presidency. At this writing, Donald Trump was just elected the 45th president of the United States, and the country's divisive nature is rearing its ugly head with protests against a Trump presidency in several urban centers.The film essentially veers away from any controversy and is essentially a harmless road-movie comedy. The premise is that because of the cover-up, the forces loyal to Haney are hunting down both former presidents Kramer and his republican rival President Matt Douglas (James Garner), both one-term presidents. They are forced to help each other, traveling to Kramer's presidential library in Cleveland, OH. Lemon as Kramer seems loosely based on President George H.W. Bush, conservative republican, and President Douglas is loosely based on President Bill Clinton, womanizing democrat. The main outcome which is only applied with a sledge-hammer is that the one-term presidents of opposing parties have more in common than they realize.Similar to many other road films, from "the Silver Streak" with Gene Wilder and Richard Prior in the 1970's to "Get Him to the Greek" starring Russell Brand and Jonah Hill in 2010, "My Fellow Americans" is the tried-and-true formula of two reluctant traveling companions who discover more about one-another than when they were political rivals. They intersect with members of middle America with which they probably wouldn't have ever seen even at campaign rallies, except maybe in issues of The National Enquirer: an obese female trucker, lower-middle class unemployed's, gays and lesbians in a small town, and, my favorite "dykes on bikes".They learn that there's more to the working lower middle-class than meets the eye but again, it's kind of too obvious for its own good. Inter-spliced with this supposedly "deep" message is a lot of goofy bits. For example, they meet an Elvis impersonator about to board a costume-party train (rings a bit like scenes from "Trading Places"), and he assumes they're actors or impersonators dressed like recent US presidents. In another moment, their car is skewered by a "Jack in the Box" statue at a fast food stop while on the road.The biggest problem is the film tries to be goofy yet somehow poignant, but it can't make up it's mind as to which road it wants to take. "Primary Colors", a far superior film to "My Fellow Americans" found an excellent balance between comedy and its darker message. In places "Primary Colors" was very funny, but the humor derived from scenes in which real politicians could be imagined engaging in outrageous behavior, such as when John Travolta as Governor Stanton throws his cell phone out of their car and they have to find it in the shrubbery. By contrast, many scenes in "My Fellow Americans" were too outrageous to be believed. The end up in a small town among a gay pride parade, hiding from their would-be assassins. The locals mistakenly believe the two presidents are "coming out". Seems like it would have been easy to go to the local authorities and contact the FBI or Secret Service! However they never seem to be able to acquire any assistance from anyone in Washington while on the road, and the baddies easily find them. One scene I did like was when they finally reach President Kramer's library, and there's a cut-out standing board with Lemmon as a young actor in uniform, supposedly when Kramer was a Second World War soldier.A decent one-watch but unfortunately a comedy which had much more potential than it realizes. The characters end up appreciating they are "both Americans". Oh brother. The espionage part is kind of interesting, but the road aspect seemed to be long strings of contrived set-up's for crazy comedic moments which were very forced. What silly thing is going to happen to them next? The two leads, Jack Lemmon and James Garner who are heavy-hitting dramatic-comedic talents make it work. In lesser hands it would have been more like a prolonged Saturday Night Live sketch. However, their characters' supposedly rivalry look more like Superman and Batman. The Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton rivalry of the last election ring more of Eleanor Roosevelt versus Dracula.

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.

Barely entertaining, extremely thin, predictable "comedy" with occasional heartstring pulls thrown in inexplicably. Everybody learns something valuable, good guys are good, bad guys are bad, and the ending is exactly what you'd expect.Jack Lemmon is decent in his role. Dan Ackroyd plays The Dan Ackroyd character, this time with an occasionally shifting Southern accent. James Garner was best cast and did the most with his character. His comedic timing was spot-on, particularly when one considers the weak material he worked with.I normally don't note special effects because I don't really care about them, but there's a scene with characters on horseback that is so unbelievably bad in execution that it might as well have been puppets. The bloopers on the DVD are worth watching, if only to get a sense of what it must be like to work with Lemmon and Garner. I found Garner's ability to maintain character impressive! But this is not a picture I need to see again.

Starts funny but there are too many dirty words to enjoy. James Gardner and Jack Lemmon hate each other in this movie and gradually move on but in the process they refer to each other in terms like "penis", "d__khead" "sh__t" "ass" it is just to vulgar. James Gardner is a former President as well as Jack Lemmom. James Gardner is a Democrat and Jack Lemmon is a Republican. James Gardner makes a deal with top Democrats to frame Jack Lemmon. Gardner thinks he will get party support to run as President again if he helps out in this frame up.Both end up being kidnapped and their life in danger.These guys are great actors and in their older years not bad. Jack Lemmon sounds very similar to Ronald Reagan when he speaks. What a waste of talent.