Director: Ben Falcone
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Dan Aykroyd
Release Date: July 2, 2014
Since Melissa McCarthy's role as Megan in Bridesmaids, she has slowly taken over the game making her one of the hottest comedians in Hollywood. She went on to do the movie Identity Thief with Jason Bateman which was sided with a lot of negative reviews but her next film would end up being one of the biggest surprises of 2013 as a Heat sequel is already in production. Now McCarthy teams up with her husband, Ben Falcone, in hopes to make their first hit together. Falcone makes his directorial debut with a script that both McCarthy and himself wrote. McCarthy already proved to us that she has what it takes to make an audience laugh but Tammy falls short in making anyone laugh and the problems start with the script.
Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) is having a bad day.
She’s totaled her clunker car, gotten fired from her thankless job at a
greasy burger joint and, instead of finding comfort at home, finds her
husband getting comfortable with the neighbor in her own house. It’s
time to take her boom box and book it. The bad news is she’s broke and
without wheels. The worse news is her grandma, Pearl (Susan Sarandon),
is her only option—with a car, cash, and an itch to see Niagara Falls.
Not exactly the escape Tammy had in mind. But on the road, with grandma
riding shot gun, it may be just what Tammy needs.
The main problem that Tammy deals with is that it doesn't give the main protagonist a strong goal. Yes, Pearl wants to go to Niagara Falls but there is no real importance to it and that makes the audience not care for their journey. What makes it worse, the duo have NO consequences if they fail to make it to Niagara Falls, they will be the exact same character they were from the beginning of the film. Once again, why should I or anyone else care if they get to Niagara Falls then?
The weak plot can be saved if the characters are amazing. But once again, Falcone and McCarthy fall short of that as well. Pearl is an alcoholic with a health problem. A character development that has been seen in movies before but the health problem was never explained at all throughout the film and alcoholism was executed pretty simply. As for McCarthy's Tammy, the character who is supposed to bring all the laughs, goes through a character development that confuses viewers. Her initial vice is that she is overeats but that disappears early from the film and does not make a return. Then what makes her "funny" is that she is vulgar, has a potty-mouth, and is unpredictable. But besides these antics not bringing in any laughs, all of a sudden and without a warning, she becomes the opposite of all those things as she becomes laid back.
What made Due Date, another road trip film, starring Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. funny is that the two characters had a big contrast making their interactions hilarious. One was crazy, the other was serious. In Tammy, both characters are some sort of crazy making the interactions between the two bland. If the two characters aren't going to be different then at least they are going have an unresolved issue between the two, right? Wrong. Tammy's biggest differences were between her boss, husband and even a deer. Tammy is concerned about her grandmother's drinking but besides that, they got along pretty well.
Two people who are alike and have no major problems going on a road trip that has 0 consequences if they fail is exactly what Tammy is about. The script did not set up for the film to succeed and everything else that followed can be blamed on the Falcone and McCarthy. Like Tammy in the film, I expect McCarthy to bounce back and give us more films with a script that actually works. I will totally recommend you to skip Tammy and wait until you are channel surfing one night and you happen to pass it.
Labels: 2014, Ben Falcone, Dan Aykroyd, Melissa McCarthy, Movie Review, skip it, Susan Sarandon, Tammy
