My Fellow Americans

The plot pulls you along at breakneck speed, so the plausibility of two US leaders on the lam matters not a jot. What does matter, however, is the excellent script which has a kiss-off line at least once every five seconds and keeps the mush down to an absolute minimum. Read full review

Glib octogenarians Jack Lemmon and James Garner are two irresistibly foulmouthed former commanders-in-chief who refuse to fade into the lecture circuit. The movie is a wicked indictment of the bipartisan system that brings to mind the urbane comedies of director Preston Sturges (Sullivan's Travels). [20 Dec 1996, p.6G]

Politicians get painted with a wide brush in My Fellow Americans, a minor comedy made somewhat special by the actors who play those combative commanders-in-chief. You'll rarely see two actors do more to make a passably fun screenplay work - and appear so effortless doing it - than Jack Lemmon and James Garner in this movie. [20 Dec 1996, p.3]

My Fellow Americans, doesn't get to the heart of any issue, constitutional, legislative or otherwise. But it has a fine time imagining our leaders as bumbling, thin-skinned, ultimately likable misfits who are as lost on the American highway as everybody else. Read full review

The execution is decidedly wobbly, with too many telegraphed, poorly paced jokes, too much Grumpy Old Men-style insult humor, and too many schmaltzy scenes. But Garner and Jack Lemmon have enough charisma, and there are enough solid laughs, to mostly overcome My Fellow Americans' embarrassing moments and improbable ending. Read full review

It's almost as enjoyable watching these august septuagenarians jumping from trains, cruising with Harley-riding dykes, and exchanging pubescent screw-you/blow me repartee as it must have been for them to do it. And fun, sometimes, is its own best rationale. Read full review

This is not a great comedy and will be soon forgotten, but it has nice moments. Read full review

My Fellow Americans is one adjustment away from being a great movie. As it stands it's a pleasing but mediocre film, with a great cast, a great story and a misguided script. Read full review

Americans is unimpeachable fun. Peter Segal doesn't aim high in this lampoon of U.S. presidents, but hits the target. [20 Dec 1996, p.C8]

The picture seems to have been intended as a political satire, but only a Hollywood executive could mistake it for the real thing. Read full review

The script is well stocked with snappy put-down humor, including on-target jabs at Dan Quayle, Jerry Ford and George Bush. But director Peter Segal loses his light-comedy touch after the first hour and makes an unfunny mess of the final, crackpot chase sequence. Read full review

Watching actors this good handle material this dopey is like waiting for Itzhak Perlman to pick up his violin and start playing variations on My Baby Does the Hanky Panky. It's funny. But it's also sad. The movie suggests we get the government we deserve, but do we really deserve this movie? Read full review

Playing a pair of antagonistic one-term Presidents thrown together in a flimsy chase plot, Jack Lemmon and James Garner trade insults that aren't exactly in Lincoln's league. Read full review

It takes a special actor's grace to survive a script as lame as My Fellow Americans, and James Garner has it. Without appearing to break a sweat, Garner makes each grotesquely desperate attempt at humor look smooth and assured. In his hands, everything seems funnier than it is. Read full review

In short, My Fellow Americans is too much like the bland, numbing political campaigns of which we're still trying to clear our heads. [20 Dec 1996, p.E6]

Surely there is a good comedy to be framed around that strange limbo of powerless celebrity we reserve for our ex-presidents. My Fellow Americans merely proves that it has yet to be made. [20 Dec 1996, p.45]

Enthusiastic as one might be that Jack Lemmon has found a new lease on movie life with his Grumpy Old Men series, the funny-crankpots genre wears mighty thin on this road trip. Read full review

My Fellow Americans is a gang-written comedy that doesn't have a political bone in its body, or much evidence of a funny one, either. Read full review

Yes, it's a deeply formulaic buddy movie predicated on geezer charm. But the surprise of this comedy about two former Chief Executives forced to get along and get in touch with the real America is how sharply written it is -- almost sharply enough to overcome the crude direction that grotesquely overemphasizes the picture's inevitable sentimental interludes. Read full review

In a film that could have been called Grumpy Old Prexies, Garner makes a decent replacement for Walter Matthau. Garner and Lemmon, game troopers both, do what they can to wring laughs out of material that went out with the Eisenhower administration. Read full review

An appalling piece of junk that tries to redo The Odd Couple and Grumpy Old Men in presidential terms. Read full review

Peter Segal's comedy has a few witty moments surrounded by a lot of silliness. Read full review