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Plot Summary
Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy lead an all-star cast in this hilarious unrated version of the comedy blockbuster. Unlimited funds have allowed Diana (McCarthy) to live it up on the outskirts of Orlando. There’s only one glitch: she’s financing her shopping sprees with an ID stolen from Sandy Patterson (Bateman), an accounts rep who lives halfway across the U.S. With only one week to hunt down the con artist before his world implodes, the real Sandy Patterson is forced to extreme measures to clear his name.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
19%- Reviews Counted: 162
- Fresh: 31
- Rotten: 131
- Average Rating: 4.1/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Rotten: Considering that it starts out with two distinctive and likable stars and a reasonably promising premise, "Identity Thief" reaches impressive heights of laziness and idiocy.
Rotten: A lot of movies released into theaters deserve the label of "bad." Only a few cross the line into "reprehensible." Say hello to Identity Thief.
Rotten: [A] sloppily made exercise of rip-offs and redemption.
Rotten: "Identity Thief" is a cheap copy of much better comedies.
Customer Reviews
TWO TALENTED STARS STUCK IN AN OVERSTUFFED STORY
Road trip flicks have steadily shown to be surprisingly successful formulas over the years, from "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" to "Midnight Run" to "Due Date." Usually, there's the straight man and the goofball who find themselves in a big series of compromising situations, and Seth Gordon's ("Horrible Bosses") "Identity Thief" follows that formula to a fault. Right from the get-go, it's easy to tell where this flick is heading off to and where it'll end up, which is typically, but not always, a bad sign for a movie. Luckily, this one happens to have Melissa McCarthy, whose consistently hilarious performance as a pathological liar and con-artist boosts "Identity Thief" above the same-old, same-old. Jason Bateman stars as Sandy Patterson, a Denver accountant struggling to make ends meet when he's offered a promising new job with a work colleague (John Cho) that will better help him support his wife (Amanda Peet) and their two daughters. Then suddenly, everything is jeopardized when someone steals his identity and, for some inexplicable reason, he has to go to Florida and bring the culprit back to Denver himself. Of course, that con-artist turns out to be Diana (McCarthy), who's a whole lot feistier than Sandy expects. And as they start the long road trip to Colorado, he discovers that she's also being chased down by a couple of mob goons (Tip "T.I." Harris and Génesis Rodríguez) and a bounty hunter (Robert Patrick). Plenty of films do manage to mix violence and comedy effectively, but director Gordon and writer Craig Mazin seem to miss the mark here at every turn, wildly veering from corny sentimentality to ugly brutality, punctuated by awkward bits of outrageous slapstick that only occasionally make us genuinely laugh. And at two whole grating hours, the film just feels much longer than it should, even though the pace is frenetic. Additionally, the various set pieces don't fit in with the basic premise, leaving the plot in tatters. Every one of the villains chasing after our two protagonists is utterly forgettable and meaningless. Even most of the action sequences feel inexplicably forced, as if they were only added for the sole purpose of stretching out the bloated story even further than it needed to be. Nonetheless, in spite of all those glaring drawbacks, there are still quite a few good things worth noting about "Identity Thief." For one, Bateman and McCarthy are fantastic together, able to have fun even in the most painfully underwritten scenes. Their comedic chemistry is remarkably strong in nearly every frame, and more often than not, it actually comes across as genuinely improvised. They also find ways of giving the characters hints of subtext, even in the middle of a lame sex-comedy scene, and they continually undermine the shallow moralizing of the script with actual emotion and gravitas, if only for a few short minutes at a time. But in the end, even Bateman and McCarthy's best efforts simply can't save this comedic romp from its non-engaging storyline and problematic lack of narrative discipline. It's far from a perfect comedy, but I certainly wouldn't call "Identity Thief" a terrible film, not at all. The two leads are perfectly cast, even if their co-stars aren't, and their back-and-forth comic mayhem plays surprisingly well to their comedic advantage. It's a shame that the script couldn't match the same fun and energy as their performances. But I digress. All in all, this is worth at least a solid rent for anyone who happens to be a fan of Bateman's deadpan acting or, better yet, McCarthy's off-the-wall antics. Either way you look at it, it's still a decently entertaining adventure.
Too Funny
This movie was so funny and when I went to see it in the theater the whole audience was laughing practically the whole time!
don't waste your time!!!
Based on many reviews, I went ahead and rented this movie. My husband & I were looking forward to enjoying a good laugh. Just minutes into it we realized that it was bad, I mean VERY bad. Not only do I feel bilked for paying to see it, but, I was sincerely embarrassed for the main actors. Save your time & money; don't get stooged into renting it, like I was.
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