Love them or hate them, you have a fairly good idea what could happen in road trip movies, before you start watching them and usually it ultimately does. Tammy, while having a little bit of originality fails to make the most of it

Tammy is Melissa McCarthy's (The Heat, Mike and Molly) latest character creation for the big screen.  She is a woman who is on one hell of a bad roll; losing her job, having her car blow up and losing her husband all on the same day.  While it's not hard to feel sorry for her you really shouldn't. When walking out of the marital home hoping for a sympathetic hug from her mother doesn't quite go her way, she throws a tantrum like a spoiled school girl and announces she's getting out of town with her grandmother Pearl, Susan Sarandon (The Client, Thelma and Louise) in tow.  The two then head cross country to Niagara Falls.
Since Bridesmaid's in 2011 Melissa McCarthy seems to make a habit of playing the stereotypical spoiled, obnoxious, overweight woman that is always stuffing her face with fast food. Yet again this is true of Tammy. But in this case she really has toned the character down a little at times, making sure you know she has got feelings.  Although always wanting to do it her way she has moments where she stops and takes the advice that others give out, none more so than from Pearl and Pearl's pyromaniac cousin Lenore, Kathy Bates (Misery).

Susan Sarandon's Pearl, a misbehaving gran, is a gem of a character. The further into the film the more we get to know about Pearl's past.  Using age and alcoholism as a perfect foil for comical situations, Sarandon pulls off this off superbly, especially when romance comes her way in Earl played by Gary Cole (VEEP), a retired farmer with only one thing on his mind. To Tammy's embarrassment Pearl is only too willing to oblige.  In contrast, Kathy Bates' Lenore, a self-made woman,   keeps everyone's feet on the ground and is totally at the opposite end of the spectrum to McCarthy's character.  Lenore's hard hitting words of advice ultimately give Tammy hope to turn her life around.

To begin with the story is a disjointed and never really gets going until about a third of the way through.  Once there though it does pick up enough to be entertaining. In this lost period the reliance on joke telling (many of which are not amusing) mixed with vulgarity does seem a bit to repetitive. There are some funny moments both spoken and visual but they are few and far between and tend to go missing in a poor script. There is a decent movie in there it just needed filling out.  Instead it's devoid of any sort of continuity and just stops and starts the whole way through which is a little disconcerting. On brighter notes the cinematography is half decent as is the soundtrack.

Though fans of Melissa McCarthy will be laughing in the aisles this will not go down as one of best. If she can take anything away from this movie, like Tammy, she will see the error of her ways and no doubt bounce back better. She has the talent and fan base to do so.