Review My Fellow Americans (1996): Not entirely successful satire on American politics. Entertaining nonetheless.

genre: comedy, adventure

To be honest I was expecting something a little more clever like Bullworth and Primary Colors. Still nothing wrong with the road taken.

And what is that road you might ask? Well, basically this is a chase movie with a lot of action and a couple of comedic situations. There is some political satire where one moment it is incredibly subtle and another it is too damn obvious. Only nearly not as sharp or critical as it could have been. Both James Garner and Jack Lemon make the most of the poor script that they have been given. On top of that it is their chemistry that keep things interesting. The so called intrigue is not compelling enough but should be seen as proper motivation of why the two characters are put together. Although there are some surprises in the end if you do care about the supposed thriller element. It was nice to see a little of what life entails for an ex president of the United States. Unfortunately it's not enough.  I wished they would have gone deeper into it. But that is my own curiosity talking. This leaves us with a focus on the done to death intrigue plot that does nothing remarkable. It is almost surreal to see old actors like Garner and Lemmon be involved in action scenes. Especially in one scene at the end where they are fleeing the scene on horses. It looked like their faces were pasted on bodies other than their own. But barely after you see them sitting on the horses for real. It's curious why this obvious mistake was left in. Or why they chose to have the scene set up like that? I am sorry that is nitpicking on my part. There are some brief moments where the former presidents are confronted with some truth and reality and I wished they would have done more with that. Especially since the problems touched upon in the film are still a problem today and it would have been nice to have a film throw these subjects in a different light. In this film it is even said that the elections between the two main characters was the most intense one ever. Of course if you compare it to the current elections in the US it probably is far too tame and civilized. Also if you are a fan of Dan Aykroyd then you will be disappointed. He is barely in this. It's more like a glorified cameo. In fact his role could have been play by any one. Real shame to see such talent wasted. 

I enjoyed this film because of James Garner and Jack Lemmon. Everything else is decent enough. I laughed a few times mostly because of their interactions. If you are expecting more and don't like these actors or don't care for them as much then stay clear because there is not much else to this.