Tammy - C+

Rated R, 96 minutes

Entertaining but cliched "Tammy" has McCarthy doing the same schtick

Melissa McCarthy knows what she's good at and does it well. A comedienne with a gift for physical comedy, McCarthy has hit the jackpot with her rough around the edges but honest characters that earned her an Oscar-nomination for "Bridesmaids." Even though McCarthy is adept at all things comedy, she's become typecast in these same roles, and her new enjoyable, crowd-pleasing comedy "Tammy" has some heart amidst its cliches and unoriginality. Midwesterner Tammy (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, Greg (Nat Faxon), getting comfortable with the neighbor, Missi (Toni Collette), in her own house. Worse, her grandmother, Pearl (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 Pearl riding shotgun, it may be just what Tammy needs. Directed by, and co-written and featuring McCarthy's real husband, Ben Falcone, "Tammy" is another entertaining variation of the hard-nosed roles that McCarthy has become known for. McCarthy and Sarandon make for an enjoyable, if not bittersweet team as the girl and her grandma, both with serious issues (anger, self-esteem, infidelity, alcoholism among them) though McCarthy did this same buddy-buddy road trip thing last year with Jason Bateman in the hit "Identity Thief." Sarandon is a gifted, Oscar-winning actress that even with gray granny wig, can't overcome the fact that maybe she's miscast here, though she and McCarthy do have fun. Most of the stellar supporting cast, including Allison Janney, Dan Aykroyd, Collette, Faxon, Gary Cole and Sandra Oh, are considerably underused, though there are a couple of memorable roles inhabited by the always warm, low-key Mark Duplass and Oscar-winner Kathy Bates, the latter of whom plays a lesbian relative who basically sums up the movie in a line or two: grow up, though that's something we knew from the first frames of the film. "Tammy" is a fine yet hardly revelatory, vehicle for McCarthy (who can still generate some laugh-out loud moments) and her brand of rough, physical comedy, with the script lacking depth given the problems these two have. You've seen "Tammy" before, in just about everything that McCarthy has done preceding it, and while she's certainly good at it, it's high time that she consider branching out to something different.

Wes's Grade: C+