BEFORE: I took the Sunday newspaper with me on our trip, so I could go through the TV listings for the week, and that's when I saw that TCM had quite a few Jerry Lewis films (some with Dean Martin, some without) scheduled for tonight and tomorrow night, because Mr. Lewis is turning 90, and they're always one to jump on an occasion like that. I got home in time to schedule no fewer than 8 films, which killed me on some level because I'm trying hard to keep the size of the watchlist under control, but I figured it had to be done. A movie with Dean Martin is the last film in a Burt Reynolds-to-Raquel Welch chain, and if I add some Martin and/or Lewis films, I figured I can keep that chain going a little longer.
BUT, for some reason some of the movies didn't record, because the channel was out for a few hours, so I missed part of "Artists & Models" and "At War With the Army", and all of "You're Never Too Young". So I'm only adding 5 films to the list, not 8, and in a way I've learned to note that these things often happen for a reason. Assuming the recording goes well tonight, I'm adding "The Caddy", "The Stooge", "The Bellboy", "Three on a Couch" and "Which Way to the Front?" and instead of zooming up to 145, my watchlist only rose to 142 - I'll be back down to 140 in just a few days.
Gary Cole carries over from "A Very Brady Sequel" as I kick off a Melissa McCarthy chain.
THE PLOT: After losing her job and learning that her husband has been unfaithful, a woman hits the road with her profane, hard-drinking grandmother.
AFTER: I didn't really seek out this film for the collection, it's one of those I got just to fill a DVD with another film on it. Mostly I find films in pairs, unless they're over three hours, in which case they get their own DVD. But this was a filler to go with the film I'm watching in two days.
And it's not a terrible film, just something of a questionable one - like, why focus on this character, who's not heroic in any way, who doesn't have her life together, someone who's rude and clueless and someone you wouldn't really want to spend time with in the real world? I guess that's the point, it's not a typical film about a perfect, glamorous person in a tough situation, it's someone more like the lead character in a film like "Bad Santa", someone in a tough situation that's probably of their own doing, someone who needs to be motivated to turn things around and get themselves straightened out.
You know, become an adult. But if that character has acted childishly in the past, and still tends to do, growing up isn't going to be easy. Maybe they've been coasting for some time, and they're not used to doing the hard work necessary to improve things. And that could lead someone to think that if they need money quickly, robbing the fast-food restaurant where they used to work is an idea that makes sense, at least in the heat of the moment.
Her grandmother is essentially the same character, only older. She just wants to get drunk and have sex in the parking lot while they're on their way to Niagara Falls. And she's left on the trip without any of her required medications - that can't be good. You'd expect that by the time someone got to be a senior citizen, that they'd have had time to work out little things like taking responsibility for things, or taking care of their health (because those who don't take care of themselves don't always get to BE senior citizens...)
Like, tomorrow I have to get some dental surgery, a root canal and the filling of a huge cavity - I realize it has to happen, and that not seeing a dentist for 12 years probably made the problem much worse, but being an adult means that I have to get this taken care of. And I can say this about "Tammy", given the choice between watching this again and dental surgery, I'd probably take watching this again. Too bad I don't have that choice, I have to get the root canal.
But at least there's a bit of a valuable lesson in the film, if you can stick with it through all the bad behavior.
Also starring Melissa McCarthy (last seen in "The Life of David Gale"), Susan Sarandon (last seen in "The Great Waldo Pepper"), Kathy Bates (last seen in "Dragonfly"), Allison Janney (last seen in "Get on Up"), Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "She's Having a Baby"), Toni Collette (last seen in "Emma"), Mark Duplass (last seen in "Safety Not Guaranteed"), Nat Faxon (last seen in "Sex Tape"), Sandra Oh (last seen in "The Night Listener"), Ben Falcone (last seen in "Bad Words"), Sarah Baker, Mia Rose Frampton.
RATING: 4 out of 10 hamburger buns
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