Film Review – Tammy (2014)

It’s hard to believe that Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon could ever be related, let alone play granddaughter and grandmother. But somehow in some ridiculous call for casting the 43-year-old McCarthy and 67-year-old Sarandon ended up being cast in these roles for this movie. To be honest that flaw left me befuddled for the first 20 minutes of this rather predictable, female, family bonding, buddy flick, that to be honest it never really recovers from it.
Sarandon shines as the alcoholic, liberated, boob flashing granny Pearl. Even with the ‘old’ make up looks beautiful, and in many ways, is the true star of the movie. Her scenes with Kathy Bates’ Lenore are really the best thing about this movie. Bates is as ever amazing, and as usual has some way of making every line sound like some wonderous dark southern poetry, that makes her so engaging to watch. Her character also has a desire to blow stuff up all the time, including staging a rather over the top Viking burial of a jetski. I always thought, “I wish I could see a Viking burial of a jetski” so today was my lucky day!
Mark Duplass adequately plays the love interest Bobby, which Tammy has zero on screen chemistry with. Which is a shame, cause from movies such as Safety Not Guaranteed and The Puffy Chair we know that he can be so good. I did also enjoy the very brief cameo from Eastbound and Down’s Stuart Little, especially as it was coupled with Tammy being astride one of Kenny Power’s prized accessories, the jetski (of later Viking burial fame). Also Sarandon’s “muscle shirts are for muscles” put down to Little was hands down the best line from the movie.
There were great people involved and I wanted the movie to be good, but in many ways it was just slightly off the mark.
Agree/Disagree with my review? Follow me on twitter @forever_nerds and we can discuss it.
Alice Hubley
Genre: Comedy Distributor: Warner Bros DVRelease Date: 4th July 2014 Rating: 15 Run Time 96 mins Director: Ben Falcone Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Mark Duplass
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