TAMMY DVD (2014)




SYNOPSIS: After losing her job and learning her husband has been unfaithful, Tammy hits the road with her profane, hard-drinking grandmother on the trip of a lifetime.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Comedienne Melissa McCarthy continues her movie career starring as yet another obnoxious character after Identity Thief and The Heat. The only difference this time is that she also co-wrote this effort which marks the directorial debut of her husband, Ben Falcone.

Tammy strictly speaking is an improvisational piece right from the start. There’s hardly a story or a structure in the first place and Falcone seems content letting his wife wisecracking whatever comes to her mind. In an ensemble movie liked Bridesmaids, McCarthy is a joy to watch because she is basically the movie’s comic relief. With Tammy, McCarthy needs to be both the comic relief and also the lead character to move the story forward.

Unfortunately, McCarthy failed miserably in both tasks.

The character of Tammy in general is unpleasant, slightly dimwitted and mostly unpredictable. Out of job and without a husband, Tammy decides to go on a road trip with her alcoholic grandmother, Pearl (Susan Sarandon) to visit Niagara Falls. The gags are built around Tammy liked for no apparent reason crashing a jetski and robbing a fast food outlet subsequently. It hardly calls for a laugh when a person with minimal IQ (I assumed) gets into so much trouble. It’s simply too mean to classify these as a joke. This person needs immediate medical help!

Luckily, we have Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates to prevent the entire movie from drowning into the abyss. Sarandon is a hoot as the crude elderly woman and Bates is just as good as her lesbian friend. We don’t even know why talented people liked Toni Collette, Mark Duplass and Dan Aykroyd are wasting their time here playing minor, forgettable characters but we heard Hollywood’s paychecks and catering is top-notch.

Sure, there are some meaningful lessons to be learnt in Tammy but it’s all buried under lame sex jokes, f-bombs and uninspiring sight gags. Melissa McCarthy no doubt is a talented actress however she needs to get herself a better script next time. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The three minutes Gag Reel is actually funnier than the movie

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Tammy on DVD doesn’t come with eye-popping visuals but at least it’s contrast and detailing is good enough. Dialogue is clean in the audio department though the overall soundfield hardly makes a dent in your home theater setup.  

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee



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 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Genre: Comedy
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Mark Duplass, Kathy Bates, Sandra Oh, Nat Faxon, Dan Aykroyd, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, Gary Cole, Ben Falcone, Mia Rose Frampton, Mark L. Young
Director: Ben Falcone
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language And Sexual References) 
Year Made: 2014

 SPECIAL FEATURES

- Gag Reel

 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Languages: English/Portuguese/Thai
Subtitles: English/Cantonese/Bahasa Indonesia/Portuguese/Mandarin/
Korean/Thai

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Running Time:  1 hr 37 mins
Region Code: 3
Distributor: HVN Entertainment Singapore