We've been waiting for a solo project by McCarthy for some time, but were the expectations justified?
Melissa McCarthy’s Tammy is set to battle it out at the box office this weekend, but the critics have already made short work of the female-driven slapstick comedy. The film sees the title character get her janky Toyota Corolla wrecked in an accident, which leads to a spiral of bad luck – her lateness causes her to lose her fast food joint job and then she comes home early enough to catch her beau cheating. Tammy must make some important life changes and she decides on the ultimate life-changer (in movies, anyway) – a spontaneous road trip.
Melissa McCarthy finally got her own film, but the critics seem largely unimpressed.
As usual, McCarthy is a force to be reckoned with, but is that enough to save Tammy’s overall score?
“McCarthy is such a force of nature — she barrels onscreen in a human hurricane of dimples and Crocs and pure, unchecked id — that she feels more genuine than almost any other woman who’s been allowed (oh, show business) to carry her own major Hollywood film, besides possibly her Bridesmaids costar Kristen Wiig. Even when the material falls short, she’s never not worth watching,” says Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly.
Watch the trailer for Tammy below.
As usual, TIME’s Richard Corliss is far less kind to the film – and McCarthy’s performance – writing: “Tammy,’ the new movie starring, produced and cowritten by Melissa McCarthy, could be an artifact from some alternate universe: the creatures there resemble Earthlings but have an entirely different and debased idea of what’s funny. Arriving in time for the July 4th weekend, Tammyhas the effect of a shoddily manufactured firecracker that weakly goes off in your hands — leaving no permanent damage, just a bitter memory. That is to say, this one is bad — a little comedy that flops in big ways.”
Read Rich Cline's review for Contactmusic.
“The latest star vehicle for the the sharp-tongued Melissa McCarthy is a rambling road picture disguised as the flatulent ‘Identity Thief.’ It’s a drama with prat falls, a comedy with melancholic departures, an erratic jumble of tones and ideas that run in circles, Dodo-style,says Matt Patches of IGN Movies.
So it sounds like McCarthy’s personality is still there, but if that’s not enough to carry a film for you, Tammy might not be a great choice.
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