Former US Presidents Russell P. Kramer (Jack Lemmon) and Matt Douglas (James Garner) have spent the past 30 years hating each other. The film begins with the Republican Senator Kramer of Ohio winning the Presidential election, narrowly defeating Democratic Indiana Governor Douglas in a very close race. We hear Kramer's trademark speech, "Our dreams are like our children ... " He says he hopes their stay in Washington is for a long time to come. The movie then skips forward four years, to Douglas' landslide win over the incumbent Kramer, who says 80 million voted against him. By the end of his first term, Douglas is well-known for his infidelity. The funniest sequence finds the two blundering into a small-town gay pride march and falling in step with a marching band of Dorothys from ''The Wizard of Oz", strutting to an arrangement of ''Over the Rainbow.'' After being safely escorted from the parade to Cleveland by a gang of black-leather-clad women on motorcycles, Kramer says that he was wrong, he should have allowed gay enlistees into the military.
The film skips forward another four years, to where Kramer's former Vice President William "Bill" Haney (Dan Aykroyd) defeats Douglas. Haney's Vice President Ted Matthews (Heard) is widely seen as an idiot and becomes an embarrassment for the Haney administration. Haney detects a scandal brewing and tries to nail it to the previous administration. Haney agrees to resign, while Douglas and Kramer are introduced to the sniper who saved them, who turns out to be a gay man they had encountered earlier in the film during a Gay Pride parade in West Virginia. Kramer and Douglas, one-time political opponents, are thrown together, and the film goes on and on and on. It concludes with Matthews set to begin a prison term and Douglas and Kramer, running on the same ticket as independents in the Presidential election, arguing over which of them will be the nominee for President. Douglas first takes the podium when he throws a dollar on the floor to distract Kramer. As Kramer bends over to pick up the dollar, Douglas takes the mic and says: "My fellow Americans," presumably to announce himself to be the nominee, and causes Kramer to swear in front of the crowd, when the film cuts out mid-sentence.
Many call this "The Odd Couple Goes to the White House." Lemmon and Garner play ex-presidents in this comedy, each of them having served only one term as chief executive. The best jokes are in the first five minutes. We meet both men living life after the White House, Kramer making speeches for whoever will pay his large fee, while Douglas writes relevant books no one reads. Any time they show up at the same function, they insult each other like snarling schoolboys. Comedy comes largely from the series of cheap shots and snide recollections the two hurl at each other. The feel-good part comes from their bonding over shared experiences as past presidents. This political thriller builds as the hired guns keep trying to assassinate the ex-presidents.
"My Fellow Americans" is a bit goofy, but it's a good farcical spoof with just enough plot twists to keep it from becoming entirely predictable. Funny at times, yet after the brief introduction it goes downhill, becoming yet another road movie traveled by characters who hate each other. As the jokes get dumber and cruder, the movie may become tedious for some viewers. The DVD contains production notes, theatrical trailer, bloopers, optional Spanish and French soundtracks, optional full-screen and widescreen presentations, and Dolby audio. William Ross composed the original music. E. Jack Kaplan, Richard Chapman, and Peter Tolan wrote the screenplay. Peter Segal directed.
