Tammy: Movie Review

Real life husband and wife Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone co-wrote the new comedy “Tammy” which was directed by Falcone and stars McCarthy. Usually with a film like this one, the trailers would include many of the film’s best joke. When I did not even crack a smile during any of the trailers or TV spots, I knew that “Tammy’ would turn out to be a complete dud. I shouldn’t have been surprised that it wound up being even worse than I imagined.

Tammy (McCarthy) opens with an extremely uncomfortable scene in which the she hits a deer with her car. The deer is just lying there while moving its eyes and it seems to be suffering. Tammy decided to give a distant mount-to-mouth by blowing in the deer’s face. I have no idea why anyone would think this was funny. I actually felt bad for the fake-looking deer.

After the deer incident, Tammy arrives to work at a local fast food franchise, only to be fired by her boss (Falcone). To make matters worse, Tammy arrives home to find that her husband Greg (Nat Faxon) has cooked a romantic dinner for their neighbor Missi (Toni Collette), whom he has been having an affair with.

Having reached her limit, Tammy and her sick grandmother Pearl (Susan Sarandon) blow town together and make their way to Niagara Falls. Tammy and Pearl have an odd romantic encounter with Earl (Gary Cole) and Bobby (Mark Duplass). The two women also do some jail time after causing trouble at a convenience store. They also get involved in a robbery. None of these events are funny and “Tammy” feels like a road trip movie that never ends.

First time director Falcone seems to be relying completely on his better half here and even she is doing the same song and dance that she has done over the past few years in films like “Identity Thief” and “The Hangover Part III”. With the exception of “The Heat”, McCarthy to me has turned into the new Chris Farley. The big difference is that even though many of Farley’s films were recycled from each other, at least his characters were likable and were somewhat charming.

By: Marc Ferman