Niagara road trip

IT’S been a giddy five years for actress Melissa McCarthy. Cast in the hit comedy Bridesmaids alongside Kristen Wiig and Rose Byrne, she deservedly pratfalled her way to numerous awards and an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress.

The same year, McCarthy won an Emmy for her work in the hit sitcom Molly & Mike. Her hosting stints on Saturday Night Live garnered more Emmy nominations and starring roles alongside Jason Bateman in Identity Thief, and Sandra Bullock in The Heat, were hits.

Now, the lovable star goes in front of the camera for her actor husband Ben Falcone, making his directorial debut, in this brash road movie.

Tammy (McCarthy) gets fired from a fast food joint then discovers her husband Greg (Nat Faxon) in flagrante delicto with next-door neighbour Missi (Toni Collette).

With her world crumbling around her, the luckless heroine decides she needs a change of scenery so she collects her profanity-spewing, hard-drinking grandmother Pearl (Susan Sarandon) and heads for Niagara Falls, which the old woman has always wanted to visit. Tammy is a hotch-potch of half-formed characters and ideas lacking nuance and depth. It’s clumsily scripted and poorly paced, and despite its good intentions barely raises a smile.

The 100-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared (15, 114 mins)

THE title of Felix Herngren’s Swedish black comedy speaks for itself, based on the international bestseller of the same title penned by Jonas Jonasson.

The 100-year-old man in question is Allan Karlsson (Robert Gustafsson), who lives in a retirement home under the fleeting watch of busy staff. While the nurses prepare a birthday cake and a surprise party, Allan decides the time has come for a final hurrah so he clambers out of the window and heads for the local bus station.

There, a skinhead asks Allan to guard his suitcase while he visits the bathroom but the bus arrives so Allan gets on board replete with the stranger’s luggage. Thus begins a momentous journey of self-discovery which allows Allan to cross paths with a friendly hot-dog stand operator and an elephant, and look back on his incredible life, which includes key moments in 20th Century history.

Goddess (12A, 102 mins)

RONAN Keating from Boyzone, who recently provided the singing voice of Postman Pat, makes his feature film acting debut in this musical based on Joanna Weinberg’s one-woman stage show, which is directed for the big screen by Mark Lamprell.

While her husband James (Keating) is travelling around the world on a one-man crusade to save the whales, domestic goddess Elspeth Dickens (Laura Michelle Kelly) is left at home to take care of their mischievous twin boys.

She installs a webcam in the kitchen so James can see the family on his travels and listen to her singing to the children from the kitchen sink. These suburban lullabies transform Elspeth into a cyber-celebrity and she is offered the chance to seek her fortune in the spotlight.

Cycling With Moliere (15, 105 mins)

TELEVISION heartthrob Gauthier Valence (Lambert Wilson) is poised to stage a new production of Moliere’s 17th Century comedy of manners The Misanthrope.

He desperately wants his old friend, reclusive actor Serge Tanneur (Fabrice Luchini), to headline the staging.

Unfortunately, Serge turned his back on the profession following a nervous breakdown. Gauthier visits Serge and plies his charm to maximum effect, convincing his old pal to at least rehearse the play with him. Over the next seven days, they play out scenes from Moliere’s text. In the process, art imitates life and the boundaries between Serge and the play’s lead character Alceste blur.

A Hard Day’s Night (U, 89 mins)

A 50TH anniversary re-release of Richard Lester’s 1964 comedy adventure, claiming to show a typical day in the life of the Fab Four. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr play larger-thanlife versions of themselves in this madcap musical comedy, braving yet another day of television and personal appearances, and the high decibel screams of thousands of fans, who follow them around London.

Wilfrid Brambell plays Paul’s meddling and cantankerous grandfather, who lands himself (and the band) in all sorts of trouble. Victor Spinetti is the stressed TV director staring unemployment in the face when his star act goes missing minutes before a live broadcast.

An unmissable treat for fans of The Beatles featuring some of the band’s best known hits including the title track, And I Love Her, I’m Happy Just To Dance With You, Tell Me Why, Can’t Buy Me Love, She Loves You and I Wanna Be Your Man.

Damon Smith