I have a new movie obsession. Like seriously obsessed. Can’t stop talking about it. It’s become a thing. Tammy and the T-Rex. This is a staple of Alamo Drafthouse’s Weird Wednesdays. I missed it in the fall, but vowed to catch it when it came back. It had a show scheduled in mid-March that quickly sold out, and added a second. I was waiting until it was within a week of the showtime so I could use my season pass, but that week was when the world shut down. So I missed it. Then Alamo launched their VOD platform, and I was able to rent this for a mere three dollars. I half expected I’d keep renting it again and again, but I unexpectedly got an Amazon giftcard that I used to splurge on the $25 Blu-Ray. It’s officially the only movie I’ve watched twice in lockdown thus far.
So what is it and why the obsession? I’ll come right out and say this is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, but I also haven’t been so joyful watching something in the past three months. Here’s the plot. Tammy, Denise Richards (things are off to a GREAT start), is dating Michael, a pre-F&F Paul Walker (the hits just keep on coming) much to the chagrin of her rage-prone ex. That of course won’t stand for such a bully, so he beats up Walker and leaves him for dead in a lion enclosure. Yes, there’s a lion involved too. Wasn’t this about a t-rex? We’ll get there.
Now Paul Walker is in a coma with a distraught Denise Richards by his side. Enter the mad scientist (there’s always one, isn’t there), who needs a brain to power his lifesize t-rex robot. He fakes Paul Walker’s death and uses some shady science to place his brain in the dino. Dino-Paul Walker escapes the lab and finds all the high school kids at a party where he can easily take revenge on all the bullies and baddies who gave him a hard time. He then reconnects with his love Denise Richards, and they (along with the token gay black best friend sidekick) try to find a new body to transfer the brain into while staying one step ahead of the scientist. Sounds pretty good right? Totally normal film?
Whatever your feelings are towards that plot description is how you’ll feel about the whole film, because it gets better (worse) from there. I find it completely hilarious, so I appreciate the terrible acting, the horrible effects, and every bad decision that made this movie come to be. It’s on par with The Room, although what makes The Room so great is that Tommy Wiseau took every aspect of that film completely seriously, whereas Tammy knows it’s terrible.
I learned that Tammy was made because somebody was going to have access to a T-rex robot and wanted to make a movie. A script was thrown together in a crazy short period of time to be filmed in an even crazier timeline. Word on the street is that even while shooting, the filmmakers would be asking people for suggestions to try to fix what they were working on. Overall it gives off a vibe that it recognizes it’s faults, but still has fun with it. And isn’t having fun what watching a movie is all about? I for one can’t wait for a post-rona world where I can host a movie night featuring this gem. I’ve already got half my trivia team renting it on my recommendation. I’m sure I’ll be watching it again soon