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.

Former presidents Republican Russell Kramer (Jack Lemmon) and Democrat Matt Douglas (James Garner) are political enemies. They are forced to work together when they become the target of a conspiracy inside the present administration under President William Haney (Dan Aykroyd). Haney was Kramer's Vice President. Haney and his Chief of Staff Carl Witnaur (Bradley Whitford) plan to frame Kramer for the scandal.

I don't really find the characters that funny or political jokes that sharp. However the two veterans do seem to have fun together. That fun is infectious. As for story, it's far-fetch. It's not until the helicopter that the movie loses all believability. One just has to forget about any realism. I doubt the Secret Service would lose two ex-presidents without much of a peep. There are way too many people after them. It becomes unreal that they keep giving them the slip. I'm not much of a big fan of the 'Grumpy Old Men' franchise and this is very much the same thing.

"My Fellow Americans" is not an especially deep or groundbreaking film--but it is marvelously entertaining. It's helped by very good dialog and very good acting to make what is essentially another road buddy picture stand out from the crowd.

This film begins with a prologue. In this fictionalized world, the US has had two recent one-term presidents (Jack Lemmon and James Garner). Neither was especially popular and both hate each other and come from the other political party. And, now that they are no longer in office, they both feel a bit useless. However, when the rather amoral new president gets in trouble for ethics violations, he's easily convinced to simply blame it on one of his predecessors (Lemmon). But, when Garner accidentally stumbles into this, he, too, is now in trouble with the evil new president. It seems that the new president is more than happy to now set up BOTH ex-presidents--and soon Lemmon and Garner are on the run from agents who seem eager to kill them. Can they avoid these crazed agents and help expose the truth? And, can they manage to get along long enough to get this done? While this film occasionally has lapses in writing (such as the getaway on horseback and the very end of the film),much of the time the film works when neither ex-president is doing anything other than argue with each other. This makes the film seem a bit like "Grumpy Old Men"--and simply having the two fine actors gripe at each other is more than enough to provide laughs and some fine moments.

By the way, if you do watch, pay attention during the horseback scene. You can notice that the faces of Garner and Lemmon was VERY clumsily pasted onto the stuntmen to make it look like they are doing the actual riding. It's amazing how much better such CGI has gotten since 1996.