27 February 2013
Directed By: Seth Gordon
Starring: Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy
What It’s About: A man takes matters into his own hands when he finds himself a victim of identity theft.
Rated R (for sexual content and language)
Runtime: 111 minutes
By Joann Lee, Staff Writer
Identity Thief is a movie that had a lot of potential. The stupidly funny plot was almost identical to that of another recent movie, The Guilt Trip, which had the similar plot line of two unlikely characters setting off on a road trip together. Also like The Guilt Trip, Identity Thief just barely made it as an okay movie with wise casting choices.
In the beginning of the movie, the audience is introduced to Sandy Patterson (“The name is unisex!”), a family-man/businessman played by Jason Bateman. The scenes of his everyday life fly by as the introductory credits flash across the screen; meanwhile his conservative life is juxtaposed with the lavish and chaotic events of Diana’s (Melissa McCarthy), a con-artist who specializes in identity theft. Within the first ten minutes of the movie, the audience is unsurprised to learn that Diana committed fraud and stole Sandy’s identity, taking advantage of his bank account to buy herself extravagant things. (Ohhh, so that’s why they named the movie Identity Thief.) The rest of the movie follows slowly, consisting of scenes that serve no other purpose other than to get a giggle out of the audience. However, many of these scenes fail to do so. More perverse than comedic, many parts of the movie are unnerving in contrast to the hilarity shown in the trailer. As an audience member, I eagerly entered the theater with the hopes of laughing until my sides hurt. Instead, I left the theater with cheeks sore from grimacing. It felt as if I had witnessed the uncut version of the movie, fully presented with no editing at all. It was as if the outtakes and blooper reels were still embedded in the movie, and I was one of the ‘special’ people who got to witness it in all of its raunchy glory. The movie was also sickly sentimental in odd places, usually right after some lecherous turn of events. Overall, it was a rather unpleasant movie to watch.
With few laugh-your-head-off moments, Identity Thief didn’t live up to its pre-conceived reputation as a comedy. Bateman and McCarthy have great movie chemistry together and the movie plotline had much potential, but it just wasn’t enough. Many movie-goers were looking for a good comedy, but instead they received a slew of dramatic car chases, gyrating hips and wince-worthy violence.
Courtesy of www.thefilmyap.com