MOVIE REVIEW - Identity Thief

Sometimes movie trailers are far better than the actual movie.  That is Identity Thief.

IT stars Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy in this screwball comedy that has its moments of real fun, but spends most of its time being a bad imitation of much funnier and better movies.  Namely Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), which was in the hands of far more skilled movie makers.  Truth be told, once you've seen the trailer for this, there is nothing else new to see here.

Quickly, it's the story of Sandy (Bateman) his wonderful wife Trish (Amanda Peete), and their lovely daughters. Sandy is a young executive that lives in Denver and has identity stolen by professional ID thief, Diana (McCarthy) who lives in Florida.  She ruins his life, rings up huge amounts of bills in his name, buys a car, commits felonies and Sandy loses his job over it.  So, with a bit of luck, he finds out who and where she is and travels to Florida to bring her back to Denver to make things right.  She agrees.  Sound ridiculous already?

But look out, Diana is being chased by armed bill collecting bounty hunters and a drug cartel that she sold stolen identities to that turned out not to be effective.  So what this story actually is, is the trek, and chase Sandy and Diana have across the country.  He is the straight laced borderline uptight young business man.  She is the outrageous, overweight, over compensating for something missing in life goofball.  And their worlds collide...sound familiar?  It is, there have been dozens of these before, including the very funny and tasteful, Jon Hughes classic, Planes Trains And Automobiles with Steve Martin and John Candy.   Truth is, that movie made in a far different time, takes a much higher road than this.  But the road is lower in the climate of movies today.


First off, this is going to be a smash hit. McCarthy is a big draw right now, and she is capable of being very funny.  And there are moments in this movie that she is.  Audiences will love this movie for all the slapstick, and the action comedy that comes with it.  She is money in the bank.  Her willingness to look silly and have the joke be on her is very endearing.   But I like her better on TV, where there is at least some restriction on what is acceptable for her to do.  She is terrific on Mike And Molly, because she has to throttle back from many things that she really doesn't need to do to be funny.    She is blessed with being funny.  But movies are different.

The F-bomb doesn't make her funnier, just more of a sell-out.   I don't know about you, but I don't want to watch her have sex with a Texas cowboy in a motel for laughs, but we do here.  And I don't need to hear about the condition of her various body parts verbally time after time. But we do here.   I loved her in Bridesmaids where she got an Oscar nomination, and she was really original and funny.  But the roles are starting to look the same.   In short, I think she is actually way funnier than this movie script.   I think she is more than this.

Then the real movie killer. The story.  I know it's just a movie, but there has to be some semblance of reality.   Truth is, real identity theft in the real world is a very serious crime as it ruins lives horribly.   ID thieves are scummy people that set out solely to ruin your life.  I don't think many ID victims befriend their ID thief.  But ours does.  In fact, he lets his young kids befriend Diana, and even tries to get her off the hook for her crimes against him.  In short, the script calls for her to be the victim of a hard life, and makes her out sympathetically.   We are supposed to feel sorry for her, and root for her.   Are you kidding?   I'm serious....are you kidding?  Would you do that if someone ruined your life financially?  Ridiculous writing, almost appalling.  Hard to believe that someone in some board room somewhere didn't say, "WTH?" 

Identity Thief.   This is a topical idea, but a terrible script, in the hands of myopic film makers who fail to take full advantage of the great talents of a funny lady in McCarthy.   Instead this is a self-indulgent, and mostly insulting story, with some fun mixed in.