Movie Review: First Family (1980)

Who says you have to be competent to be President of the United States? Well certainly nobody today. Perhaps the only job with fewer qualifications than being a movie reviewer.

On any average day President Link has to deal with the First Lady's drinking problem and his 28 year old sex-starved daughter's attempts to get laid while chasing White House staffers. The Unites States and other countries are courting an African country's vote in the UN, but Link has the advantage that the one person who can speak the language is a professor in the United States who is promptly 'volunteered' into the service of the White House. But something is up as the President has a secret meeting (not so fictional any more) with the African country's leader, with a negotiation that could make him a hero or a scoundrel.

What do you get when you combine the talents of Bob Newhart, Harvey Korman, Gilda Radner, Madeline Kahn, Austin Pendleton, Richard Benjamin, Rip Torn and Fred Willard into a movie written and directed by Buck Henry? Apparently confused.

For sure there are funny moments and a semblance of a plot, but ultimately no real idea where it's wanting to go. The final act in this seems like an afterthought, and after some reading up on it, it was as the studio, and test audience, was not happy with the original ending.

It's 1980 and absurdist racial humor abounds in this as the focus of the plot is on a fictional African country. It's very much 1970s era Saturday Night Live in its attempts at mocking social attitudes toward race, well intentioned it may have been, with a misfire at socially conscious humor that today just comes off as racist.

I cannot give it a recommendation. If I were scoring it I would give it a 2 1/2 out of 5. There's entertainment to be found.. if you have nothing better to do.

I had originally intended this as a Movie Night post with a link to the movie. In writing an intro I got carried away and wrote a review. You can stream this from Internet Archive here. If you would prefer to download it, here is a direct link to the mp4 file (597mb).