Ranking Movie and TV Presidents
Ranking the Movie & TV Presidents with Jeremy Johnson of ManCookGood.com & filibusterfreestyle.com
12 movie and tv presidents in order of least likely to vote for to favorite / best from JJ
I have blurbs on each one of them, themes about government in that era and even clips from their speeches if we can get good enough sound.
You can open the show by touching on how many presidents have been portrayed in film and tv, how many played themselves.
We then break it down into types, personal problem presidents, the world is crumbling presidents, domestic issue presidents and joke presidents.
From there we go tit for tat down the board, mine start with the worst and end at the best, all framed as much in voting for in relation to our current mess.
Chris Rock in Head of State as President Elect Mays Gilliam - That ain’t right speech - If you have two jobs just to be right, that ain’t right!
Definitely a funny commentary on life in 2003 america under George W Bush - came out in 2003, one year before Obama’s famous speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention — which is interesting - just related to that fact that i’m sure Rock thought the country was much further away from meeting Obama as a national political figure
Kevin Cline in Dave
Technically he plays two president’s — well he plays “Dave Kovic” who becomes president after real president and total DB, Bill Mitchell dies from a stroke
Kevin Cline was super likable. the Dave trailer on Youtube almost motivate me to watch it again. A young Ving Rhames is involved, and your get a quality run from Sigourney Weaver co-stars Charles Grodin from Midnight Run fame- Ben Kingsley from winning Oscars all day, fame and even Laura Linney
Bill Pullman in Independence Day (and in the sequel) as Thomas J. Whitmore - best know for his “rousing hey earthlings, let’s save our planet” speech
“ID4" Movie that truly launched Will Smith as an A-lister
Harrison Ford in Air Force One — 1997 Film, President James Marshall (not Jack Ryan)
Gary Oldman as the bad guy - Glenn Close as the VP - Good Flick - Ford is presidential
Jamie Foxx White House Down - 2013 Film co-starring Channing Tatum - Foxx plays President Sawyer - One of his quotes at the end is “Get this trash off my lawn” (meaning the bad guy) — that’s a lot like the Air Force One quote
Michael Douglas The American President — 1995 Film - Andrew Shepard. A Rob Reiner Film, written by Aaron Sorkin (who did west wing as well as ton of other stuff). Annette Benning does a nice job. Richard Dreyfuss does a great job as the pompous windbag with no substance opponent in the election, Bob Rumson
Co-stars - Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox
Andrew Shepard gives a great “retort to Rumson” defending his relationship with Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Benning)
Fantastic “Speech” - very progressive and kind of spot on to the future of the Dem party. Not shocking wth Rob Reiner as the director
I’m a big fan of President Andrew Shepard - tough for me to let someone beat him out
Morgan Freeman (Deep Impact and Olympus has Fallen) in 2013’s Olympus has Fallen - Freeman actually plays House Speaker Allan Trumble who then gets promoted to VP - good news is he wasn’t prez and i didn’t see it - prob for the best
Deep Impact, Freeman plays President Beck - He gives a good speech at the end — i think he could’ve done some of the other speeches — let’s face it, this movie was the Junior Varisty “Armageddon” - Which makes President Beck Forgettable — in Fairness to Freeman - he did play God convincingly in Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty — so frankly, if he had another crack at “the prez” i’d like to see it
Tim Robbins in Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged me — Not a big roll - just fun to Bring up Austin Powers
Fun Fact: The following Presidents’ played themselves - Bill Clinton 1996 “First Kid”, Jimmy Carter, 1994 "Home Improvement", Gerald Ford 1983 “Dynasty", Richard Nixon 1968 Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Barack Obama 2013 "Saturday Night Live”
Votes for Portraying a “Real President” Josh Brolin as George W Bush and Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt in the “Night at the the Museum” Trilogy — Paul Giamatti as John Adams in the HBO Mini-series.
TV presidents - Martin Sheen as Josiah Bartlett on the West Wing, Kevin Spacey and Frank Underwood in House of Cards, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer on Veep - amongst seven women who have played US presidents
TV Presidents get a chance to actually feel like the president - because they are episodic
Martin Sheen felt like the president - Prez Barlett seemed like a real person a bit — he’s probably the best, albeit aided by the nature of playing the role for several seasons
Frank Underwood aka Kevin Spacey - best portrayal of the ruthless, cutthroat nature of politics — he’s the worst human being — again aided by several season, and the character being reprehensible
Selina Meyer - Best portrayal of the “ME First” nature of Washington - also best portrayal of having complete dimwits on her staff - there is realism in that - despite the show being somewhere between a romp through and a farce of life in the DC Politics at that level
40 of our 44 Presidents have been portrayed in a movie at least once — way higher than I thought it would be
Questions: which of these presidents would you be most likely to vote for?
Which of these real life actors is the most presidential in the real world?
Is there a president who could deliver the line "get off my plane" than Harrison ford as James Marshall in airforce one — I think Morgan Freeman — the dude made "March of the Penguins" interesting