Tammy





Directed By: Ben Falcone

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Allison Janney, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, Dan Aykroyd, and Kathy Bates

Mainstream cinema is looking pretty underwhelming on this Fourth of July weekend.  It's much quieter at the movies relative to 2012 and 2013.  Compared to films of years past like The Amazing Spider-Man and Despicable Me 2, we have no big budget spectacles arriving at the box office this weekend.  On what's traditionally considered one of the biggest movie weekends of the year, I find this to be downright astounding.  What we do have on this holiday weekend is the lingering disappointment Transformers: Age of Extinction and the reheated Melissa McCarthy comedy Tammy.

Tammy (McCarthy) is having a bad day.  While driving and snacking on some Cheetos, she hits a deer.  Thanks to the accident, she is late for work yet again at fast food restaurant Topperjack's and is fired by her boss Keith (Ben Falcone).  After losing her job, she goes home to find her husband Greg (Nat Faxon) enjoying a romantic dinner for two with his neighbor and secret lover Missi (Toni Collette).  Taken aback by all of this Tammy storms out of their house and goes a few doors down where her mother, father, and grandmother (Allison Janney, Dan Aykroyd, & Susan Sarandon) all reside.  Upon arriving, Tammy proceeds to vent about all that's happening in her life.  Her mother Deb tells her to grow up and get over it.  Though typical mother-daughter bickering ensues, Tammy is emboldened enough by the situation to ask to borrow her mother's car.  When Deb expectedly delivers an emphatic no, Tammy gets a yes from the most unexpected place.

Tammy's grandmother Pearl offers her a ride in her car and $6,700 cash on one condition — that she goes along with her granddaughter.  The longtime alcoholic is ill with diabetes, high blood pressure, and several other ailments.  Living with her daughter and son-in-law, she comes to the conclusion that she doesn't want to die by their side or at the nearby Brookview Retirement Home where they'd like to put her.  With a vehicle and some spending money, Tammy and Pearl embark on one wild journey involving jet skis, robberies, and lesbian Fourth of July parties.  The one thing that's missing on this family trip is Pearl's medications.

Since the success of Bridesmaids some three years ago, Melissa McCarthy has been cashing in on the same old act as the puppy-loving Megan.  It was abundantly clear in Identity Thief.  It was equally as clear in The Heat.  Now, it's clear as can be in this weekend’s Tammy.  Devoid of any genuine humor or worthwhile performances, McCarthy's latest flick is a comedic disaster that lets us know we've had enough of this tired act.  Tonally and narratively all over the place and wasting a stellar cast with an overabundance of comedic talent, this failure of a film Tammy may just be the trough of McCarthy's career.

Tammy is unyieldingly unfunny, and it's actually quite sad.  Obviously, we have McCarthy delivering the same old comedic act and bringing no comedy whatsoever to the film.  However, she has an elite cast backing her up including two Oscar-winning screen veterans in Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates as well as a host of other talented performers.  None of them rise to the occasion to deliver the gut-wrenching humor their viewers deserve.  There's one other thing I just don't get about this cast.  Melissa McCarthy (43), Allison Janney (54), and Susan Sarandon (67) are all within 24 years of each other in terms of age.  There's no way in hell that these three actresses can convincingly portray three generations of women from the same family. Unless Tammy's mother and grandmother had some obscenely early teen pregnancies, they're entirely too close in age.

Tammy is a film that goes for the low-brow humor every time it has a chance to endear its audience.  It's a waste of the talent director Ben Falcone has on his hands.  More importantly, it's a waste of moviegoers' time on this precious three-day holiday weekend.  With the right creative approach, this could have been a great lighthearted, low-key comedy for the Fourth of July.  As it stands, Melissa McCarthy's latest film is a definite dud.  Tammy gets a wasted rating.  Have some Alabama Slammers with this one.