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Lamar reviews - Tammy

If you love Mike and Molly, can’t stop watching Bridesmaids over and over, and still maintain that Identity Thief was a pretty good movie, then you are excited about the aspect of what kind of fresh new character Melissa McCarthy is bringing to her new movie Tammy. The good news is, disappointment builds character. Melissa McCarthy has proved over and over that she is funny and one of the best physical comedians working today. The problem is she seems to be falling into the trap of doing the same character over and over. Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow got old after a while. What’s really bad is she and her husband Ben Falcone wrote this movie and he directed it, which means there is no one else to blame. Melissa plays Tammy who is having a really bad day. She hits a deer on the way to work which makes her late. Her boss played by Falcone fires her and she arrives home early to find her husband cheating on her with their next door neighbor.

She decides to leave town but doesn’t have a car. Her grandmother Pearl, played by Susan Sarandon offers up her car but only if she takes Pearl with her. This leads to a Tammy and Louise road trip. Susan Sarandon does what she needs to do and Melissa does the absolute best she can do with the material she has but considering she actually helped write the material, I can’t feel sorry for her. The danger with a road trip movie is it can get out of hand, lose its direction, and become just a series of setups for jokes. And if the majority of those jokes miss you are in for a bad time. There are some pretty funny moments but they are few and far between. Plus they are overshadowed by some seriously depressing scenes where McCarthy makes sure you feel Tammy’s pain. Her character Molly that she plays on TV reacts in a funny way to what other people do or say.
The characters she plays in movies are very aggressive, profane, and sometimes mean spirited. One minute she takes the character and makes the joke about her appearance and circumstances and when we are rolling on the floor, can’t catch our breath, she makes us feel like horrible people for laughing. It’s like watching Jerry Seinfeld do standup interlaced with film clips from Schindler’s List. This movie overall is sort of a downer.

Its 96 minutes, Rated R for really strong language and sexual humor.

She has 2 more movies this year and 2 for next year. I hope she goes in a different direction and her and her husband find a hobby other than writing.

My Score: 2 Buds

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