Film Review: Unfunny ‘Tammy’ is a Melissa McCarthy Misfire

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Average: 5 (1 vote)

CHICAGO – Melissa McCarthy has jumped the shark. Or if she hasn’t, she’s strapped on the skis and is contemplating the ramp. Going once more to the same character well – this time with a script co-written with her husband Ben Falcone and directed by him – McCarthy shows little originality or gumption as the title character in “Tammy..”

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.0/5.0
Rating: 2.0/5.0

What could have been a interesting character journey into the lower middle class wage slavers, becomes a tired exercise in “Tammy always wins” and “Tammy is super attractive once you clean her up,” etc. McCarthy can’t help being the hero in her own film, which is fine, if the damn thing had any laughs. Instead, it’s a road trip movie with seen-it-all-before stereotypes and a waste of a superlative cast in support of Tammy’s greatness. Seems to me, I’ve heard that song before.

Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) is having a bad day. She has been fired from her fast food job, she walks in on her husband (Nat Faxon) with another woman (Toni Collette) and has to move back in with her mother (Allison Janney in a total miscast). In such a situation, what does our plucky gal do? She starts a road trip with her grandmother (Susan Sarandon, not a grandma type).

The road consists of wacky adventures, including the high concept element of dragging a jet ski that Tammy has damaged on a trailer hitch. Through some long reaching circumstances, Grandma is arrested, and Tammy must rob the same fast food joint she used to work at, but in a different town. But lo and behold, Tammy’s rich lesbian aunt (Kathy Bates) saves the day, and allows romance to blossom between the title character and a dude named Bobby (Mark Duplass, looking embarrassed).

“Tammy” opens everywhere on July 2nd. Featuring Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Allison Janney, Ben Falcone, Dan Aykroyd, Gary Cole, Kathy Bates, Mark Duplass, Sandra Oh, Nat Faxon and Toni Collette. Screenplay by Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy. Directed by Ben Falcone. Rated “R”

StarContinue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Tammy”

Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon
Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) and Grandma (Susan Sarandon) are On the Road in ‘Tammy’
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

StarContinue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Tammy”

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