What a mess of a movie. I can't remember the last time I saw so many otherwise enjoyable actors rendered so much less fun to watch by incompetent direction and a mediocre script. The gimmick is that Lemmon and Garner are ex-Presidents, see, and Lemmon is the conservative who acts like a liberal and Garner is the liberal who acts like a conservative and they get stranded together and hijincks ensue and they learn important life lessons from their constituents and oh what the heck ever.
I'm not saying it couldn't have been done well -- only that it wasn't in this case. "Wag the Dog," "Bob Roberts," "The American President," and the real-life Presidency of George W. Bush are all superior efforts when it comes to relatively recent features that satirize the White House.
I'm not saying it couldn't have been done well -- only that it wasn't in this case. "Wag the Dog," "Bob Roberts," "The American President," and the real-life Presidency of George W. Bush are all superior efforts when it comes to relatively recent features that satirize the White House.