Wednesday, July 2, 2014

MOVIE REVIEW - Tammy

Melissa McCarthy is back in yet another summer comedy with Tammy. 

She is a money making machine, and this movie is proof positive.  The cast also includes, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Sandra Oh, Dan Akroyd, and Toni Collette.  My bet is all of them signed on to this for one reason only.  They all want to cash in on the McCarthy money printing bandwagon. It certainly wasn't for the quality of the script or entire project or for the honor of working with her.

McCarthy plays the same basic character she does in all her movies.  She cusses a lot, she is always cramming food in her mouth, she does gross things, and makes tons of improvisational dialogue that sounds amazingly like the last McCarthy movie.  Tammy is a loser of sorts, with a supposed big heart, who just can't catch a break.

She gets fired from her fast food job, her husband is cheating on her, her mother doesn't understand her, and her granny is willing to enable Tammy to be the person she is. Even if it's not in her best interest.  She and Granny go on a road trip to Niagara Falls, but never really get there. Instead, they drink a lot, do some drugs, meet some undesirables, and Tammy robs a fast food joint. as the movies signature scene. Tammy gets arrested, and the laughs are on?

This will be a love/hate movie for many.  McCarthy is so loved by so many, some will howl every single minute of this. Others, who may be burning out on her, will not.  This is really not very funny at all. Sad part is, McCarthy I feel can be so much better than this, but she chooses this path. The one she has been stuck on for a few years now.  Tammy also tries to be poignant near the end, buy attacking the lives and challenges of millenials head on to a degree, but it's too late.  The gear shift is abrupt, and awkward, and stops even the little momentum that this had.

It would be fun to see McCarthy do something a bit different than this.  But the more I think about it, I wonder what else is there?  She has staked her whole thing on her immense weight jokes, her willingness to act gross, unladylike, and crass on screen. Plus, her irreverence which at times is funny, but overdone.  She has painted herself into a corner, and it will be interesting to see how she gets herself out of it, or if she simply becomes Adam Sandler and makes the same movie over and over for decades.

Tammy,  Same old thing.





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