Fake Presidents

You know what they say, "it's always Shark Week somewhere ." This episode we take a look at President Marcus Robbins from the third entry of Syfy's SHARKNADO series, played by Mark Cuban. The movie is kind of a mash-up of WHITE HOUSE DOWN and JURASSIC WORLD with a little bit of DUE DATE and ARMAGEDDON thrown in for good measure. On SHARK TANK, Cuban always sits on the left, but where does this fak...

Bill Pullman stars alongside Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum in 1996's White House-exploding, #1 blockbuster: INDEPENDENCE DAY .   You know the president. You know the speech. But do you know his political party? We think we do! And we think we've figured out so much more...    Happy Fourth of July!   Email us at fakepresidents [at] gmail.com to join the conversation, suggest movies, and be our best...

Writer/director (not to mention producer/editor/composer) Robert Rodriguez is back on our radar with another fake president, this time taking the form of an actor credited only as "Carlos Estevez." But who is Carlos Estevez really? (Charlie Sheen!) Are the hard R-rated MACHETE movies really just spin-offs of the PG-rated SPY KIDS franchise? (Danny Trejo thinks so!) In a film full of celebrity came...

Rob Reiner and Aaron Sorkin leave little to the political imagination in their 1995 romantic comedy, THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT. Michael Douglas, as the widower POTUS Andrew Shepherd, is without a doubt a pre-Tea Party, far right Republi--- Nope... Not at all... He's clearly a centrist Democrat. So instead of just talking about Shepherd's judicial courtships, we also dive into his domestic courtship o...

William Hurt is the Fake President in this 2008 political thriller in the vein of Rashomon . Sigourney Weaver is in yet another movie with a presidential body double, Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox are secret service agents, only one of whom is good at their job, and Forest Whitaker did such a bang-up job directing our last movie ( First Daughter ), he got cast as "guy who holds a camera" in this on...

Michael Keaton is the empty nester fake president in 2004's FIRST DAUGHTER, starring Katie Holmes as a first family member who is definitely not Chelsea Clinton going to a college that is definitely not Stanford. Is this fake POTUS legitimately funny, or is he just portrayed by a great comic actor? (Little bit of both.) How did this movie go from an idea in actor Jerry O'Connell's head to a theatr...

Gerard Butler is back to save a Fake President. Or Not. Maybe the POTUS is a bad guy in this movie?  GEOSTORM is a 2017 action movie about weather controlling satellites and the politicians who love them. Gerard Butler plays the world's most brilliant scientist. Andy Garcia is the President. Ed Harris (his third FP appearance!) is a nefarious Secretary of State. Jim Sturgess is Ed's undersecretary...

The writer/director/producer of SIN CITY (Robert Rodriguez) casts the villain of HAPPY GILMORE (Christopher McDonald) as a very fake president in a very family-friendly movie. What really went through George W. Bush's head while he read that book to those elementary school students? What movie franchise has made 6 films with only 3 plots? How is Robert Rodriguez like Ralph Nader? Do we have the an...

It's Presidents Day!  So we're doing something a little different this week. We're taking a look at a different kind of "fake" president. That's right, we're hosting an NCAA-style tournament to see who's the greatest Saturday Night Live presidential impersonator of all time! The cast members in contention include: Dana Carvey, Chevy Chase, Phil Hartman, Jay Pharoah, Darrell Hammond, Will Ferrell,...

Kevin James is the (fake) president in Pixels, a 2015 action-comedy directed by Chris Columbus and also starring Adam Sandler, Michelle Monaghan, Josh Gad, and Peter Dinklage.   How does a President triple their approval numbers? (You gotta save the planet) Is it ever okay for a Geek Squad tech guy to try to kiss a client? (No, definitely not) Is this what a Chris Christie presidency would look li...

This is the episode THEY didn't want YOU to hear!   (They = Ben and Eric, because it was originally recorded as a practice episode months ago, not intended for wide release)   But recent events have, um, changed our opinion of this movie about an insurrection on Capitol Hill during a special joint session of Congress as high ranking members of the Executive Branch plot a coup.   Is this mostly dis...

We look ahead to see what may be in store for the world of Fake Presidents in 2021, but only after we've totally gutted 2020.   In this episode, we cover all the FP developments of last year that we missed (like a new FP show possibly coming to TV in the fall!), a musician-turned-fake president that we adored (Ariana Grande!), and a surprise return of a fake president in the most surprising of pla...

Sure, Gal Godot and Chris Pine are back in the 1984-set WONDER WOMAN sequel along with newcomers Kristen Wiig and The Mandalorian himself, Pedro Pascal, but you know what got Ben and Eric really excited this week? Finding out there's a fake president in the movie, too! What would the 80s be like without Ronald Reagan and why didn't he get the part? Wonder no more...   Find us on Twitter: @Fake_Pre...

So many firsts this week!   We cover our first fake TV president with 1600 PENN's "Dale Gilchrist."   We have our first guest with 1600 PENN writer, Dan Hernandez (POKÉMAN DETECTIVE PIKACHU, THE TICK, ONE DAY AT A TIME) to shed some light on what it's actually like to write for a fake president.   And we have our first discussion about Hall of Fame POTUS Bill Pullman, who played President Gilchris...

Not since Macaulay Culkin in HOME ALONE 2 has someone so evil gotten lost in New York.    Kurt Russell stars in John Carpenter's classic 1981 action/thriller about a fake president that gets trapped in the worst place on Earth...at least until the sequel.   Donald Pleasence (Dr. Loomis from HALLOWEEN) plays the President, but Eric and Ben disagree on just how evil he's supposed to be...and why doe...

Has this quintessential British rom-com gone from classic to problematic? Sure! But who cares!?! We're here to talk about the US President, quintessentially named "US President," played by Billy Bob Thornton, and the fact that Hugh Grant's British Prime Minister seems willing to go to war with him because of, well, love...actually.   Find us on Twitter: @Fake_Presidents

Gene Hackman is back for his second time out as a fake president...in his last movie role ever? (Yep.) Why did he never act again after this movie? (Beats us.) Was it something Ray Romano said? (Probably.)   Also in this episode, we'll discuss the crappiest part of being a secret service agent, the best part of being a former president, and Ronald Reagan's dead body.    Follow us on Twitter: @Fake...

Homer Simpson is the ultimate anti-hero, the EPA are the ultimate bad guys, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is the not-so-ultimate (Fake) President in THE SIMPSONS MOVIE.   How might an Austrian-born bodybuilder become an American President in real life? Why did Senator Orrin Hatch want Arnie to be POTUS so badly? Is it really such a bad idea to place a billionaire in charge of a critically important re...

We take a look at Fake President James Marshall from 1997's AIR FORCE ONE, a popular choice for "all-time favorite movie president." Does he still live up to the hype? (Mostly) Should you notify HR when your boss kills somebody on a conference call? (Probably) Can Harrison Ford land a plane? (No!)   Find us on Twitter ( @Fake_Presidents ) and Instagram ( @Fake_Presidents ) to join the conversation...

This week's fake president not only has a secret book, but also a secret name! Will Bruce Greenwood's nameless, devastatingly handsome president one day wind up on Mt. Rushmore high above the lost city of gold? Wait...there's a lost city of gold under Mt. Rushmore? And Nicolas Cage has to kidnap the POTUS to find it? All these puzzles and the gloriest of holes will be deciphered as Ben and Eric ta...

We watched HBOMax's WEST WING Reunion Special, and we also take our first dive into listener mail, including a message from a former federal prosecutor who writes in with the exact charges he'd file against the characters in DAVE for installing a fake president.  Got a question? Email us at fakepresidents [at] gmail.com!

Let's take a look at the fake president from a hit 2013 action movie that's basically "DIE HARD in the White House." No, not WHITE HOUSE DOWN. The other one.   Find us on Twitter: @Fake_Presidents

Is Gene Hackman's President in ABSOLUTE POWER the worst fake president ever committed to film? Maybe! Is future fake president Dennis Haysbert the most psycho secret service agent ever allowed in the oval office? He's in the running! Is Clint Eastwood way too into empty chairs? You betcha! Find us on Twitter: @Fake_Presidents

In this episode, Ben and Eric discuss what happens when a real Joker becomes President in Tim Burton's 1996 cult classic MARS ATTACKS. Find us on Twitter: @Fake_Presidents

What better way to start a podcast about Fake Presidents than with a movie about a fake president? Join us as we dissect the politics of the 1993 movie DAVE, starring Kevin Kline as both The President and the lookalike recruited to become him.   Find us on Twitter ( @Fake_Presidents ) and Instagram ( @Fake_Presidents ) to join the conversation and to get a heads up on future episodes.