This is a pretty unique presidential comedy because the protagonists, Jack Lemmon and James Garner, are a pair of presidents already out of office. It must have made Walter Matthau, Lemmon's comic counterpart for over 30 years, feel pretty expendable to see the same "Odd Couple" chemistry with Garner performing so well across Lemmon.
The movie cleverly starts out with Lemmon's character presidential candidate Kramer having been just elected president, thanking his constituents with joy and giving a speech about "how dreams are like children, they must be nurtured", this is a running gag here, this is the only speech he has and he gives it at least a hundred times in the first hour of the movie alone. We then fast-forward four years and we hear Jack Lemmon at a podium in front of a big crowd, this time conceding to his opponent and giving a speech, obviously a lie, about how much confidence he has in his opponent to run the country. We start to think the movie is about to settle down, but before we get to know any more about the characters, we're fast forwarded 4 years, where Garner's character Matt Douglas has just lost to Kramer's former vice-president (Akroyd), and if that's not a long enough introduction, we fast-forward 3 more years we finally begin to settle in, and after the movie has given us enough motion sickness, we see Kramer and Douglas, feeling nostalgic and unfulfilled about their mediocre administations. When you think about it, it's nothing more than a midlife crisis. After that, however things kind of get confusing. Haney frames Kramer for a fraud as a way for the administration to defer blame. That's understandable, but for some odd reason, this pits the two ex-presidents together into a life-or-death battle against the national security agency. I think the plot is ridiculous, maybe I should've been more astute, but why was Douglas' life in danger? Why didn't the two ex-presidents go to the local authorities? Why was the NSA involved? However, regardless of the lack of anything convincing, the movie is undeniably fun. I'm not sure exactly why the characters are doing what they're doing, but at least they're having fun doing it and we can't help but have some fun watching them on their shenanigans, accidentally marching in a gay parade, hitching a ride with some illegal immigrants, posing as presidential impersonators of themselves, and the like. The humor also borders on political satire as well.
At the end of the movie, the good guys win in Disney-like fashion and everything turns out just fine and dandy, and because of that my first reaction was extremely joyous walking out of the theater. I was thinking, "Yay! The presidents won! They're gonna clean out Washington!" That's what a happy ending does for you, but shortly after, it struck me how ridiculous and Disney-like the movie was. I think Roger Ebert said it best when he said "it's soon to be forgotten, but it has its moments." It makes little sense, true, but it's pretty fun.
The movie cleverly starts out with Lemmon's character presidential candidate Kramer having been just elected president, thanking his constituents with joy and giving a speech about "how dreams are like children, they must be nurtured", this is a running gag here, this is the only speech he has and he gives it at least a hundred times in the first hour of the movie alone. We then fast-forward four years and we hear Jack Lemmon at a podium in front of a big crowd, this time conceding to his opponent and giving a speech, obviously a lie, about how much confidence he has in his opponent to run the country. We start to think the movie is about to settle down, but before we get to know any more about the characters, we're fast forwarded 4 years, where Garner's character Matt Douglas has just lost to Kramer's former vice-president (Akroyd), and if that's not a long enough introduction, we fast-forward 3 more years we finally begin to settle in, and after the movie has given us enough motion sickness, we see Kramer and Douglas, feeling nostalgic and unfulfilled about their mediocre administations. When you think about it, it's nothing more than a midlife crisis. After that, however things kind of get confusing. Haney frames Kramer for a fraud as a way for the administration to defer blame. That's understandable, but for some odd reason, this pits the two ex-presidents together into a life-or-death battle against the national security agency. I think the plot is ridiculous, maybe I should've been more astute, but why was Douglas' life in danger? Why didn't the two ex-presidents go to the local authorities? Why was the NSA involved? However, regardless of the lack of anything convincing, the movie is undeniably fun. I'm not sure exactly why the characters are doing what they're doing, but at least they're having fun doing it and we can't help but have some fun watching them on their shenanigans, accidentally marching in a gay parade, hitching a ride with some illegal immigrants, posing as presidential impersonators of themselves, and the like. The humor also borders on political satire as well.
At the end of the movie, the good guys win in Disney-like fashion and everything turns out just fine and dandy, and because of that my first reaction was extremely joyous walking out of the theater. I was thinking, "Yay! The presidents won! They're gonna clean out Washington!" That's what a happy ending does for you, but shortly after, it struck me how ridiculous and Disney-like the movie was. I think Roger Ebert said it best when he said "it's soon to be forgotten, but it has its moments." It makes little sense, true, but it's pretty fun.