`AMERICANS' TAKES THE LOW ROAD : THE FACTS.

Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Staff Writer

Are you one of those Americans who really gets riled when anybody puts on airs, who gets a kick out of pricking other people's pretenses and who figures the president puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like every other guy?

Because that's the basic takeoff point for this lowbrow satire - that the presidency is a job just like any other, and if you could fool enough people, you, too, could get elected.

While that view may be a depressing state of affairs to some, in ``My Fellow Americans'' it's the formula - and we do mean formula - for a kind of raunchy, populist comedy that many Americans will no doubt find uproarious.

The movie gives us Jack Lemmon as former President Kramer and James Garner as former President Douglas - two bickering old frauds with too much time on their hands who unwittingly become involved in an elaborate White House coup d'etat.

Kramer (Lemmon) is the Republican and Douglas (Garner) the Democrat - which gives them a reason to feud but has little other significance. Their roles are defined mainly by equal-opportunity foibles - Kramer is a penny pincher who'll do anything for a buck, while Garner can't resist a tryst with any female who's willing.

Busy as they are with demeaning post-presidential activities such as cookbook signings and fee-grubbing at podiums, these two lunkheads suddenly are forced to acknowledge that somebody is trying to kill them.

Spirited off in a White House helicopter, in which they narrowly escape an explosion, they soon find themselves abandoned on a country road in the dark, penniless, on foot and fearing for their lives.

That might suggest the onset of a character-building odyssey in which they discover ``the real America'' - but that would require more conviction and more social commentary than this movie has in mind.

No, this is mainly a vehicle for character comedy on the most unchallenging of levels - it's ``Dumb and Dumber'' for older guys, ``Kingpin'' with presidents, Beavis and Butt-head wearing good suits.

Sample dialogue: ``Sleeping too much is a sign of depression.'' ``You keep talking, and I'll put a depression in you.''

In fact, if you find the plot too pointless - it involves an attempt by the incumbent president (Dan Aykroyd), to ``spin dry the kickback money,'' or some such thing - you can count the number of times Kramer and Douglas trade the vulgarisms that earned this otherwise innocuous outing its PG-13 rating.

At its worst, the movie swerves from its overall cynicism to offer up some drippy respect for America's everyday people, whom it portrays as simpletons, but simpletons with the integrity of the downtrodden.

That's more integrity than the movie has - a good satire is a satire to the end, whereas this one goes mushy here and there, and even subverts its black-comic ending at the last minute with a happy one.

Jack Lemmon - whose ``Grumpy Old Men'' franchise has a tad more dignity than this outing - dithers his way through ``My Fellow Americans,'' relying on familiar mannerisms, while Garner gamely gives us a performance with a bit more snap to it.

John Hurt appears as a not-as-dumb-as-you-think vice president, and Lauren Bacall is wasted in a do-nothing role as Kramer's doting wife.

The film: ``My Fellow Americans'' (PG-13; language).

The stars: Jack Lemmon, James Garner, Dan Aykroyd, Lauren Bacall, John Heard, Everett McGill.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Peter Segal. Written by E. Jack Kaplan, Richard Chapman and Peter Tolan, based on a story by E. Jack Kaplan and Richard Chapman. Produced by Jon Peters. Released by Warner Bros.

Running time: One hour, 41 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: two stars.

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Photo: Jack Lemmon and James Garner star as two feuding former U.S. presidents in ``My Fellow Americans.''