In my opinion Melissa McCarthy is funny; given the material, given the ball, she can run with it. I believe that improvisation is her strong suit. And in recent films she has even shown that she is also able to immerse herself dramatically and is able to draw empathy from the viewer.
So when one of her films comes out i do go into it with confidence that no matter how stupid the story is, she will at least contribute to making the film watchable. Unfortunately, this time around, not even McCarthy's volatile humor could save this film. Every now and then she is able to pluck a chuckle from the viewer, but it is a failure despite that. You would think that seeing Susan Sarandon as a chaos ensuing alcoholic grandmother would be at least interesting, if not amusing; but it isn't. It most of the time, is very uncomfortable to watch. No matter how hard she might try to convince you that she is capable of playing such a role, it doesn't work. Kathy Bates was solid as always, but when the cameo performance by unknown actors is funnier than the lead roles, then something is wrong.
They embarrassingly try to cash in on situations from previous Melissa McCarthy films; the singing in the car, running from someone to no avail. Although there are some moments of wit and creativity, far too many times it falls back into obvious, uninteresting attempts at comedy.
A poor attempt at comedy and although MCCarthy tries to bring a lifeline to a flatlining comedy, in the end...well it just dies.
So when one of her films comes out i do go into it with confidence that no matter how stupid the story is, she will at least contribute to making the film watchable. Unfortunately, this time around, not even McCarthy's volatile humor could save this film. Every now and then she is able to pluck a chuckle from the viewer, but it is a failure despite that. You would think that seeing Susan Sarandon as a chaos ensuing alcoholic grandmother would be at least interesting, if not amusing; but it isn't. It most of the time, is very uncomfortable to watch. No matter how hard she might try to convince you that she is capable of playing such a role, it doesn't work. Kathy Bates was solid as always, but when the cameo performance by unknown actors is funnier than the lead roles, then something is wrong.
They embarrassingly try to cash in on situations from previous Melissa McCarthy films; the singing in the car, running from someone to no avail. Although there are some moments of wit and creativity, far too many times it falls back into obvious, uninteresting attempts at comedy.
A poor attempt at comedy and although MCCarthy tries to bring a lifeline to a flatlining comedy, in the end...well it just dies.