Tammy

This film tells the story of a woman who has a very bad day. She goes onto a road trip with her alcoholic grandmother, going wild and having fun.

I had high hopes for "Tammy" but it turned out not as funny as I expected. Tammy and her grandmother acts juvenile and irresponsible. They are just irritating and mean, and they aren't even funny. I'm a little shocked by Susan Sarandon going all out in playing an older woman, dying her hair gray and looking a bit fragile. That's not the usual character she plays! But still, she couldn't save the film from being a disappointment. Tammy's love interest is terrible too, he is so reserved to the point of being wooden.

This film is alright if you're very bored, but there might be other better films out there to pass time.

Melissa McCarthy has risen to the forefront of female cinema comics, and I want to believe she deserves her place. Is she a better comedienne than Tina Fey, Amy Pohler, or Jenny Slate? No. She has secured her place ever since Bridesmaids as a potty-mouthed plus size who throws her weight and mouth around the screen like a weapon threatening anyone who thinks she is not comical.

She's not always so, at least in Tammy, in which she plays an underachieving rebel losing her fast food job and taking to the road with her grandmother, Pearl (Susan Sarandon), to escape that job loss and the loss of her husband, Greg (Nat Faxon), to neighbor Missi (Toni Collette).

Thelma and Louise this Tammy is not: Besides the regularity of curse words (McCarthy is one of the writers) that substitute for wit, the insults to seniors and fast-food workers are gratuitous. Tammy's 38 days in jail are treated like a light diversion, not the result of a serious fast-food robbery. I must remember, however, not to apply standards of common sense to comedy.

So it seems the writers have a difficult time deciding what tone-- between the comedy about a rotund lady on the lam and the serious issue of alcoholism. It seems they wanted both hilarity and poignancy—mostly they have neither.

One need look only at much better writing in other contemporary buddy films like the Jump Streets, where Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill have lines that bite and soothe and a chemistry that Sarandon and McCarthy strive for but don't always achieve. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid's chemistry and wit are superior, so too Sarandon and Davis in Thelma and Louise, and by the way, McCarthy and Bullock in Heat.

However, McCarthy suffers by comparison with heavyweights like Latifa, Kathy Bates, and maybe Roseanne Barr, who is a more direct comparison and at times better able to show range.

Susan Sarandon's portrayal of the alcoholic grandma is rarely humorous or poignant. Her flirting with a guy of a certain age is a good bit for her youthful old age, but the connection is forced under the umbrella of cute for an oldster.

Tammy is not a keeper in the buddy genre; perhaps McCarthy will engage Bullock again for a better brand of banter.

I'm very surprised at all the negative reviews this film has received as I believe those who rated it negatively aren't accepting the movie for what it is. It is your typical Melissa McCarthy movie and for me that is a good thing. Her character in this film is almost identical to her character from "Identity Thief" but I don't have a problem with it like others do as I feel that is her comedic strong point. She isn't afraid to go that extra mile for a laugh. If you're on the fence on whether to rent or buy this movie just ask yourself if you liked her in Bradesmaids and Identity Thief and if your answer is yes, you will not be disappointed with her performance here.

My second review focuses on the comedy of the weekend named Tammy. As I'm sure you have seen, Melissa McCarthy stars in this rambunctious tale where hilarious antics are sure to plague every second of this movie without any restraint from a censor bureau. From her track record though, we know that her movies have been pretty much the same basic structure, with only slight changes to her character and a different setting. Does Tammy fit into this mold, or is there something more in this film that makes it worthwhile. Read on to find out.

Seeing as Tammy is a comedy, let's start with the laughs this film has to offer. Tammy has a variety of comedy present in this film, all ridiculously silly and overacted as we tend to see in McCarthy's movies. From the very beginning, McCarthy plays her traditional character, hitting a deer in the first five minutes and coaching it through its recovery. You would think this set the stupid bar high, but it only gets stupider as one bad day starts an adventure full of cursing, insults, alcoholic stunts and awkward situations. Many of these scenes you have seen in the trailer, with a comedic kick happening moments after, which you most likely will predict. And through it all McCarthy does her same routine, screaming loudly and making over dramatic motions that take a long time to move on from. She is funny yes, but how much longer can I keep finding entertainment in the same character and laughs she provides. Yet for audience members like me, there are some other characters to help take the comedy reigns. Susan Sarandon playing a careless, alcoholic grandmother was very entertaining, her sarcasm and blunt delivery perfect to ground Tammy's vibrant nature, and provide a bit of a moral dilemma. Even better was Kathy Bates who was a blend of Tammy and Grandma Pearl, doing over the top stunts and yet very too the point with her lines. Often Bates character helped drive the story, helping develop characters with just a few catty phrases before calling in laughs.

Speaking of the dialogue, the writers did a nice job packing the script with a lot of diverse comedic styles. Screaming rants by Tammy are a mess of descriptions that lack any cohesive meaning, often just word vomiting all the thought in her head. Like most rated R movies, witty humor is replaced with curse laden one liners, that sometimes hit the mark and sometimes go soaring over head. Yet, there are some lines that had me laughing incredibly hard, in particular the description of Tammy to a bag of Cheetos and describing her life in a few comical means. Though for many audience members, it didn't matter what was said, for the generic comedy was gold in their eyes.

Story wise, it's simple, escaping a town full of bitter memories to go to Niagara falls to fulfill an old dream. Over the course of the movie, Tammy realizes the sources of her troubles come from within and instead of running she needs to face up to them. While retired, stale, and rather predictable, it is always nice to get a refresher in these life changing lessons, that can kick you hard enough to motivate you to implement them. Otherwise there are no twists, no real surprises, and really no dilemmas you haven't seen before. Such simplicity makes this a fun comedy, but again you can save yourself money and watch one of the other movies McCarthy has starred in.

There really isn't much else I can say about this movie, other than the camera work or sound quality are nicely done. The soundtrack is also filled with some rather good tunes, the opening song in particular made me bob in my seat. Overall Tammy is the same comedy you've seen again. Fans of this style will be rolling on the floor or screaming out loud, so these are the audience members I feel should see the movie. Otherwise skip the film and wait for it to come out on RedBox, unless you are looking for a way to beat the heat. Tammy is stupid, silly fun though, and certainly you will find some laughs and giggles in the writing.

Overall my scores for Tammy are:

Comedy: 5.5-6.0 Movie Overall: 5.0

After Tammy had a bad day combo of getting fired and caught her husband cheating, she goes to take a runaway trip. But since she lacks money and a car, she urges to borrow them from her grandma Pearl, who then insisted that she joins Tammy. The pair gets crazy on their trip, purchasing a broken jet ski in process, while from time to time Pearl reminisce about her past stories and tell them to Tammy. The catch of the trip for Tammy is that Pearl is secretly a heavy alcoholic, and lustful, despite her obvious danger from diabetes. One night at a bar the pair meet father and son Earl and Bobby. Pearl and Earl hooks right up, leaving Tammy alone outside for the night. The next morning Tammy gets infuriated and leaves Pearl while she gets drunk. When Tammy returns to her, they get arrested due to disturbing public peace. Pearl bails Tammy out.

That night, feeling guilty, Tammy resorts to robbing a branch of Topper Jack, a fast food brand where she was employed. It turns out that Pearl had contacted Earl to bail her out. So the next day Pearl and Tammy returns the robbed money. Pearl then contacts her friends Lenore and Susanne. Lenore then ditches the car Tammy and pearl uses to cover tracks of the robbery, but they bring the jet ski. Eventually they give a "Viking funeral" to the jet ski at a night party at Lenore's. The next day the police come due to the neighbors complaining about a burning jet ski. That's when they made it about Tammy. Afetr some time Tammy gets out of jail. When she gets home, her mother tells her that they put Pearl in a retirement home. Angered, Tammy rushes to the home trying to free Pearl. To Tammy's surprise Pearl is happy where she is. But they still go to Niagara Falls, the original destination of their trip.

The story is actually based on a quite uncommon premise of having a runaway trip after going through a low point in life. The movie doesn't really develop the entire story suitably. It feels like there are some things missing here and there. The pace is not well set, where, starting from the deer crash, we have the first twenty to thirty minutes in a rather fast pace. Yet it slows down, starting about the conversation in front of the eagle, and stays that way for a long duration. And after that, the pace doesn't really recover. It makes the mood of the movie feels rather awkward.

The jokes feels rather off because there are many great laughs from the dialog, but there is little to none of rather physical or practical joke. Well, compared to the last time I saw Melissa McCarthy in The Heat (2013), Tammy (2014) has way less of those crazy practical jokes. I bring this up because I do think there are many spots which are capable to be filled with some practical laughs here and there.

The acting is a so-so job in overall. McCarthy still did her loud, raunchy and wild character as she almost always do. Susan Sarandon provides some extra laughs, especially on the scenes of Pearl and Earl. Kathy Bates gives an adequate supporting cast acting as well as Gary Cole and Mark Duplass.

My final say that Tammy is only worth a 5 out of 10 score. Although it is a good laugh most of the time, and it can be a good entertainment, but it definitely can't be included in the family movie category due to the harsh language. Also the unstable pave building makes this movie loses it.