St. Vincent - review

Ain't them Bill Murray's Saints?

Bill Murray certainly qualifies, as he delivers one of his best performances since Lost In Translation outside of a Wes Anderson movie.

Vincent is a proper grumpy old man. Miserable, grouchy and unlikeable and Murray does of a great job of channeling the darker side of his humour to make audiences a bit standoffish with him to begin with before the cracks in his armour start to appear and we begin to understand why he is the way he is.

The trailer suggests a buddy comedy of sorts between Vincent and the young kid next door (especially due to the casting of McCarthy and O'Dowd in supporting roles) but it is a much more than that, at times sad and moving but perhaps more could have been done to embrace the darker elements of the script as it feels like some of this was watered down in the final edit.

There is laughter and tears and a Murray mint performance that was good but perhaps not good enough to qualify for sainthood.

3 stars

Tammy - review

In the Batman graphic novel The Killing Joke, The Joker attempts to drive Commissioner Gordon insane just as he was by the effects of their life collapsing around them in just one day.

Melissa McCarthy's eponymous character of Tammy suffers a similar fate as she loses her job, car and husband in the space of the opening 10 minutes but instead of driving her insane it results in her driving her grandma on a soul-searching road trip that involves such "wacky" antics as crashing a jet-ski, causing a scene at a lesbian 4th of July party and robbing a drive-thru.

Directed by her husband Ben Falcone (Air Marshall John from Bridesmaids), this was probably designed to be a vehicle to showcase her talents and a different side to her but it starts off as more of the same McCarthy that has been seen already in the likes of Bridesmaids, The Heat and Identity Thief.

The character of Tammy is meant to be on a journey, literally and metaphorically, but there is no real change shown here and the result is the worst movie trip since Hunter S. Thompson experienced Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.

I hear the cottonwoods whispering out back. Tammy, Tammy, Tammy is crap.

1 star