Tammy
Warner Bros. | Release Date: July 2, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
39
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
15
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJul 1, 2014
It's a broad, helter-skelter farce whose best bits hinge almost entirely on the considerable charms of its star. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJul 2, 2014
The film ricochets between Tammy being an oblivious cartoon goblin and a textured, sympathetic human being who just wants to be loved. Perhaps if the film had catered a little less to McCarthy's comedic gifts — the curse-word fugue states, the slapstick humor, the non sequiturs — the end result would have felt more balanced and rewarding. Read full review
70
The DissolveNathan RabinJul 1, 2014
A crowd-pleasing, proudly working-class celebration of large women, old women, broke women, and women who love women, Tammy isn’t just consistently funny and unexpectedly touching and tender, it’s also genuinely subversive. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJul 2, 2014
McCarthy is aggressive and foul-mouthed while Sarandon is sensible and laid-back. And they’re clearly destined for trouble, which leads to solid if scattered laughs. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 2, 2014
When you’re balancing ridiculous slapstick right out of a live-action cartoon with well-written, well-acted scenes that feel completely of this world, that’s a tough balancing act, and “Tammy” isn’t quite up to the task on a consistent basis. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 1, 2014
The movie shoves McCarthy and Sarandon in a car together quickly, without much in the way of expository set-up. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJul 1, 2014
Tammy, in the end, feels like a pulled punch. McCarthy promises a haymaker she never quite delivers. Read full review
60
SlateAisha HarrisJul 2, 2014
The playful energy between McCarthy and her completely game co-star, Susan Sarandon is more than enough to keep the movie humming along. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichJul 2, 2014
They have little feel for the technical side of filmmaking; the imagery is flat and the editing amateurish. Most shots seem held for a beat too long or too short, wreaking havoc with the comic rhythm. Nonetheless, McCarthy and Falcone’s attempts to make Tammy more flesh-and-blood than a figure of fun are often poignant. Read full review
59
Film.comJordan HoffmanJul 1, 2014
Basically a drama-in-disguise. Unfortunately, it’s a formulaic and extremely uneven one, albeit with a number of sympathetic performances. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 1, 2014
McCarthy co-wrote the film with her husband, Ben Falcone, who also directed and appears as the heroine’s wormy tyrant of a boss. Their collaborative mojo results in some winning sweetness, but not a lot of hilarity. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 2, 2014
Tammy is a road trip movie and, like many road trip movies, it embraces a meandering, aimless tone. It's often said for films of this sort that it's the journey that matters, not the destination. Unfortunately, in this case, neither is worth the price of admission. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartJul 2, 2014
This pastiche of sitcomy episodes never gels into a plot. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Courtney SheaJul 2, 2014
As a script it is uneven and tonally inconsistent – best as a brainless, gross-out comedy, less successful when striving for emotional poignancy. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 1, 2014
Tammy’s journey, as they like to say in movieland, is into self-worth. Yet the far more interesting trip here, at least until her self-actualization kicks in, is through an America of lousy jobs, tyrannical bosses, nickel-and-diming poverty and real-looking women. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 1, 2014
It just plonks down the actress and a handful of stellar co-stars without much in the way of a script, storyline, or actual jokes. Yet you may still come out with a smile on your face. It’s very odd. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 2, 2014
The still youthful-looking Sarandon playing a grandmother is a jolt, especially since she doesn’t resemble the doddering roustabout she’s supposed to be playing. Maybe that’s why the director Ben Falcone (McCarthy’s husband and, with her, the film’s co-writer) gives Sarandon a full head of gray hair. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 2, 2014
I hesitate to label the result as bad or good. It’s just … off. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJul 1, 2014
There are some laughs and, at least on screen, more than a few tears. But it doesn't come together with the kind of satisfying punch a comedy should deliver. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 1, 2014
The fact that it stars the extremely funny Melissa McCarthy is both its saving grace and incredibly frustrating. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJul 1, 2014
Falcone’s film is an unsteady mix of broad comedy and indie heart, asking us first to roar at Tammy’s ignorance and outrageousness and then to be moved at this lovable misfit muddling toward love, maturity, and a better life. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangJul 1, 2014
Falcone’s attempts to spin this flat, formulaic comedy into an affecting character drama are frustrated by filmmaking choices that work against a sense of persuasive reality. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineDavid Lee DallasJul 1, 2014
Ben Falcone's film is an almost plotless doodle, with low stakes made even lower thanks to the bratty passivity of its titular antiheroine. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia PuigJul 1, 2014
Where 1991's "Thelma & Louise" was funny and action-filled, Tammy's story is thin, cringe-inducing and, worst of all for a comedy, not funny. Jokes land with a thud and the pacing is leaden. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 1, 2014
McCarthy and first-time director Falcone must have assumed that tossing a drunk and a dunce into a Cadillac would negate the need for a motive or even a script. Read full review
33
HitfixDrew McWeenyJul 1, 2014
Tammy is a mess, and it feels like a real misstep for this rising star. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJul 2, 2014
Unimaginatively filmed and of a misbegotten construction, Tammy goes all in with its namesake character (played by McCarthy), hanging the entire movie around a person who is immediately and irreversibly established as being thoughtless, unperceptive, destructive, and uneducated. Read full review
30
TimeRichard CorlissJul 2, 2014
This one is bad — a little comedy that flops in big ways. Read full review
30
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJul 1, 2014
[McCarthy] and her husband Falcone (who also directed) have created a character comedy that's missing both comedy and character. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJul 1, 2014
It’s a waste of a good cast as well as a serious trip-wire for McCarthy, who may know what’s best for her talents but, on the evidence, needs a deft-handed outsider to make sure she’s maximizing them. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJul 2, 2014
Grating attempt at comedy, the latest failed attempt to capitalize on McCarthy's considerable charm. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 2, 2014
If anyone could harness McCarthy's dynamo presence while protecting her from looking bad, it should be Falcone. Instead, Tammy suggests no one had the heart to tell this hot Hollywood couple that it wasn't working. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 1, 2014
As a first-time director, Falcone has trouble maintaining a specific tone - the movie wobbles back and forth between sentimentality and silliness, sometimes even within the same scene. Read full review
25
The PlaylistDrew TaylorJul 1, 2014
Tammy is a boring, unfunny road movie that limps along idly, consisting of a string of nonsensical set pieces and halfhearted stabs at character development that come across as off-putting and odd. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedJul 4, 2014
Tammy is not just a celebration of everything vulgar and stupid in the dumbing down of American movies. It’s a rambling, pointless and labored attempt to cash in on Ms. McCarthy’s fan base without respect for any audience with a collective IQ of 10. And it’s about as funny as a liver transplant. Read full review
0
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 2, 2014
Tammy is a bummer, not least because McCarthy’s fans know she’s better than this. Read full review
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