Tammy is a road trip movie, with the unlikely pairing of a train wreck of a woman (Tammy, played by Melissa McCarthy) and her alcoholic grandmother (Pearl, played by Susan Sarandon). The two are sick of their lives and set out to go to Niagara Falls with no real plans or solid ideas.
I’ve been a huge supporter of comedic actress Melissa McCarthy so far, but this may be the break. The movie is a bit more than just a flop. It’s mostly due to the script, but it was written by McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone (who also directed). Frankly, the movie is largely plot less, never getting its story off the ground and, worst of all, its laugh less. The biggest problem here is that the story, as they have written it, should have been a dramedy. There are a few funny lines in the beginning when Tammy quits her job and yells at her boss (husband Ben Falcone), after that it gets pretty bad.
The idea that we must buy into this woman gorging herself with Cheetos and Doritos for the entire length of a feature film is utter torture. Tammy just limps into gear, act after act. It feels like the same joke over and over again. We get it, McCarthey is overweight and has a foul mouth, we knew it in “Bridesmaids”, we knew it in “The Heat”, and we knew it very well in “Identity Theft”. Why should we care to see it again in a film that is, quite honestly, one of the worst films I’ve seen all year? The answer is we shouldn’t.
The movie is poorly written, poorly acted and cannot be saved even with the brilliant Kathy Bates and a bit-part by Dan Akroyd. Foul language exists to try to boost scenes that are stone dead unfunny and it goes over like a lead balloon.