Tammy | 2.5/5

SINGAPORE — If you think this is going to be yet another film where Melissa McCarthy plays a loud-mouthed slob … you’re right. McCarthy is in her comfort zone as the haphazard Tammy, who, after a series of stilted, trivialised life crises, finds herself on a road trip with her grandmother.

Susan Sarandon plays said grandmother (quite a stretch, we know, considering the mere 24-year-gap between the two), who is a drunk diabetic with a penchant for kissing bearded old men. Now that sounds like a recipe for disaster.

The premise of the movie is a mess. The two decide to head to Niagara Falls of all places — Grandma to fulfil a childhood wish and Tammy to get away from her failed marriage. As Sarandon’s character puts it, “You’ve got time and I’ve got money.” Perhaps it’s just us, but with a lot of time and money surely you’d want to do more than drive up to see the Niagara Falls?

While they are on this seemingly endless road trip (it lasts till just about the end of the movie), they manage to get drunk, crash a jet ski, rob a bank and get arrested. Here is McCarthy at her best, playing it up with a lot of cuss words and her usual physical comedy without overloading the audience with typical slapstick stuff. In terms of comedic timing and reaction, Sarandon is there for her in every scene; it’s a wild ride full of things being set on fire and bad singing.

With a supporting cast that includes the likes of Kathy Bates and Sandra Oh playing Cousin Lenore and her girlfriend, respectively, the film also stars director Ben Falcone, McCarthy’s real life husband, who plays her uptight former boss.

However it’s not all bad. Sarandon is so much fun to watch, from inappropriately fooling around with Gary Cole’s married character to her drunk rampaging during the Fourth of July party. A far cry from her more well-known dramatic roles, this side of her plays off excellently against McCarthy’s existing comedic drive in a way that will have audiences cringe-laughing throughout the movie.

Tammy is your typical American comedy, with plenty of I Love America jokes and even a salute to a war veteran, topped up with beer guzzling and singing The Allman Brothers’ One More Silver Dollar. It’s a good enough movie if you’re in the mood for some unlady-like humour (to put it nicely) and seeing Susan Sarandon play a shriveled old lady. Otherwise, maybe it’s better to just wait for it to come out on DVD.

(NC16, 96 mins)