Tammy and the T-Rex (Gore Cut) (2019)

Director: Stewart Rafill
Writer(s): Rafill, and Gary Brockette
Starring: Denise Richards, Paul Walker, Theo Forsette, and Terry Kiser

There are idiotic movies, and then there are movies like Tammy and the T-Rex, which was reviled upon its release as a “family-friendly” PG-13 movie in 1994, but has just been re-released in an uncut R-rated version that adds quite a bit of gore (and is, in fact, referred to as the “gore cut”.). Actually, in an interesting side note to the tastes of particular regions, it stayed in its uncut version in other countries (most notably Italy), while U.S. executives thought the best way to peddle the movie was to strip it of virtually all of its violence in order to appeal to the masses (cue facepalm). I've never seen the PG-13 cut (though I intend to), but the uncut Tammy is a dazzlingly laughable movie that's completely in on its own joke, and the end result is, despite its one-joke premise, consistently hilarious and damn-near brilliant.

Denise Richards is the titular Tammy, a popular high school girl who falls for Paul Walker's Michael. However, her ex-boyfriend—bad boy Billy (why are all bad boys named Billy?)--isn't willing to let her go so easily. One night, Billy and his goons catch Michael with Tammy, and end up entrapping him in an open-air safari (?) where they beat him and leave him to be mauled by a lion (??).

Meanwhile, a scientist who has created a working, full-scale replica of a tyrannosaurus, is disgusted at the idea that it must be controlled remotely, and longs for a way to give it a life of its own. He, along with his trusty assistant Helga, decide the best way to do that would be to give it a human brain! The evil duo end up hovering around a local hospital to find suitable candidates, where he stumbles upon Michael, who is barely clinging to life. They feign his death so that they can steal his brain (in a rather impressive and graphic sequence; it's also the point Michael's "feigned" death becomes real), and transplant it into the head of the T-rex. Lo and behold, it works! But, much to the chagrin of the mad scientist, Michael the T-Rex has only two things on his mind: continuing his relationship with Tammy, and getting revenge on those responsible for his horrific state.

Denise Richards is a perfect Tammy, Paul Walker is appropriately Paul Walker as the popular jock, and Theo Forsett stands out as Tammy's gay best friend Byron. Speaking of which, was it common to have such an over-the-top gay character in 1994? And one that was black? Those are actual sincere questions, because characters like that are so commonplace today, but homosexuals weren't as well regarded as they were back then...in fact, this was still during the whole HIV/AIDS scare that was casting gay men in a negative light. Sure, his character covers the stereotypes of being both black and gay, but his character is well-liked by everyone, and he's otherwise never treated as the “token”. The movie feels almost revelatory in that regard; his character should feel even more at home now than he did in the '20s.

As you can probably tell by now, this is one of those things that you're either going to love, or hate; you can even probably already tell just from that synopsis which category you're going to fit in. It's basically just a one-joke premise, combining teen rom-coms with Jurassic Park (in fact, the dinosaur is supposedly an actual model used during the filming of that movie, and the movie was written entirely around it), but thanks to a dedicated cast , intentionally ham-fisted acting (that legitimately makes it feel like a family film) as well as a meager run-time (90 minutes, which includes the roughly 10 minutes of gore footage excised from the original cut), it never overstays its welcome.

And even though the added violence is rather strong, none of it is disturbing, given the overall silly tone of everything that surrounds it. It would have been interesting to see just how its legacy would have fared here in the U.S. had they opted to release it in this original cut back in '94, rather than watering it down for mass consumption—it certainly couldn't have been forgotten any quicker than the PG-13 cut was—but at least those of us in the U.S. can finally see it the way it was meant to be seen. In this iteration, Tammy and the T-Rex is an entertaining, incredibly moronic yet self-aware film that's a strong reminder even stupid movies can be not just genuinely entertaining, but genuinely good. In the most ridiculous way possible.

RATING: 8.5/10

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