2014 Movie Preview: #29 - Tammy

Release date: July 2

Plot summary: Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) is having a bad day. She's totaled her clunker car, gotten fired from her thankless job at a greasy burger joint, and instead of finding comfort at home, finds her husband getting comfortable with the neighbor in her own house. It's time to take her boom box and book it. The bad news is she's broke and without wheels. The worse news is her grandma, Pearl (Susan Sarandon), is her only option - with a car, cash, and an itch to see Niagara Falls. Not exactly the escape Tammy had in mind. But on the road, with grandma riding shot gun, it may be just what Tammy needs.

My take: Melissa McCarthy has shown she has some real comedic chops with the films she's been in over the past few years. This may be her riskiest project to date, however, given that she is the lead and doesn't have a major comedic talent sharing the headline with her (no offense to Sarandon). From the plot alone, this does not sound like anything special. However, the film has been written by McCarthy and her husband, so they likely know how to make something funny. Plus the studio is releasing this two days before the Fourth of July holiday, which suggests that they've got a lot of faith in the project as well. Until I see a trailer, I won't know for sure, but there's enough here to make me feel like it deserves a spot on the list.

RBR: Identity Thief

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprise that a film with a premise all about stealing the identity of someone would so liberally steal elements from other movies. That's what happens though in Identity Thief, a movie with a ton of promise thanks to the casting of two extremely funny people and saddling them with a tired, rehashed plot that has been done so much better in the past. There are elements of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Midnight Run, and Taking Care of Business seen here but this movie strips away the humor, intelligence, and heart found in those films. Instead, this film focuses on car chases, action scenes, and a physical brand of humor that yields very few laughs. It is a shame that a film that features two comedic actors who I enjoy produced only one actual laugh from me. I quickly became disinterested in seeing how everything would get resolved. Not surprisingly the central story ends on a predictable note while other subplots get ignored or are paid off in an unsatisfactory manner. Given how successful the film was, I know that I am now one of the last people to actually see this movie, but if you have managed to hold out longer than I have, continue doing so because there's nothing here worth your time. Rating: **

Buddy Sis-tem

Paul Feig may not be a household name, but chances are you've enjoyed one of his comedy projects. He's created critically acclaimed shows (Freaks & Geeks), directed well known sitcoms (The Office) and even found himself in front of the camera as well (playing biology teacher Mr. Poole on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Feig finally garnered some mainstream success when he directed Bridesmaids, a film that attempted to show that the R-rated comedy is not just a man's territory. In his latest effort, The Heat, Feig once again shows that the ladies can be just as foul as any guy around.

The Heat stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as polar opposite cops who are forced together to bring down a major drug dealer. Bullock is the straight-laced workaholic cop while McCarthy is a foul-mouthed loner cop who just wants to clean up her town. Both of these two have played these type of characters before so they know what to do in order to yield laughs out of the archetype, but I did wonder throughout the film if it would have been better for them to try and play the opposite role instead. My guess is that I would have given the film more credit, but the laughs probably wouldn't have been as frequent.

The buddy cop genre has certainly been around for a while and has always yielded mixed results. For every Lethal Weapon there's an I Spy. Credit to Feig who recognizes that he's mining familiar territory and yet still finds a way to make it work. He knows what tropes to play for parody and which to keep straight in order to make the story still feel like it has consequences. A lot of this is done through the scenes that give us a glimpse into the family of McCarthy's character. The interactions she has with her Bostonian clan produce some of the biggest laughs, as well as a few serious moments.

The one drawback to the film is an issue that plagued Bridesmaids as well. There were too many scenes that forced the agenda that women can be crass as well. To me funny is funny, regardless of who's telling the joke. I get no greater satisfaction seeing McCarthy curse up a blue storm than I would Will Ferrell or any other male comedian. I understand the need to show this off since so few women have actually tried to be raunchy, but I hope this becomes less frequent. Let's the jokes be organic to the story rather than be included simply to try and prove a point.

The good news for The Heat is that for as many forced jokes, there's at least twice as many well earned laughs. Bullock and McCarthy have a good chemistry together to the point where I would actually be interested in seeing them team up again, whether it was for a sequel reuniting these characters or in a completely separate project. The film is also buoyed by the presence of several other funny people in smaller roles including Tony Hale, Jane Curtin, Marlon Wayans, and SNL's Taran Killam. Each of these actors know how to get a laugh out of the character they are playing instead of us just laughing at the mere presence of them showing up in the movie.

The interesting thing about this movie is that I'm not quite sure how it will play with me when I attempt to rewatch it a few years from now. Some comedies like The Other Guys have aged well, while others simply don't produce the same number of laughs when you know what's coming. All I can say is that on my first viewing I laughed a lot more than I expected. The Heat creates another successful entry into the familiar buddy cop genre thanks to the deft directing of Paul Feig and the strong chemistry of its two female leads. Grade: B+