Identity Thief
Ok I am going to get straight to the point, you ever saw that movie (Planes, Trains, and Automobiles) yeah you know the move where (Dinner for Schmucks) Two people normally the guy with a good old American life gets stuck with a loser and now they have to bond to reach some type of connecting goal to both become better people in the end.
Cast and Crew
You get the Picture.. It’s a movie that we all have seen before in some way, shape or form. Normal Joe Schmoe meets polar opposite, and both conflicting lifestyles have to work together. Identity Thief stars Jason Batemon and Melissa McCarthy and is directed by Seth Gordon ; The director of “Horrible Bosses”; “Freakonomicks”; and the gamer documentary "The King of Kong". You could tell from the kinds of humor projected in Gordon's documentaries that he was bound to be a comedy director. Gordon uses a very smartassy, sarcastic kind of comedy in his movies and he is not bad at telling a story.
The Story
So the movie is about a man with a Unisex name that has his identity stolen by a fat female identity thief. He is nearly arrested and almost loses his job. He pleads the police and his boss to allow him to go out, find this thief and bring her his job, set her up to be arrested, clear his name and his destroyed credit situation. That is our story and I have to say, this is what happens when you take a dumb, unrealistic story, and place it in the hands of a better storyteller. While the idea is silly, the movie at least executes everything in a way that keeps you somewhat interested, but of course the execution is not perfect.
The Perfomances
So we know about the story, how is the acting? Well, there isn’t a problem with their performances at all. The issue I have is with the writing . When Batemon and McCarthy meet, it doesn’t look like a...a meeting. For the first thirty seconds you see two people meeting for the first time, but after introductions are made, the two characters start talking to each other as if they knew each other for some time. In fact, I would say the movie would be a thousand times more believable if the movie were about a man who had his identity stolen by an old highschool friend, or even better, high school fling. You will know what I am talking about when you see the movie for yourself. Batemon and McCarthy have pretty damn fun chemistry and that is one of the things that make the movie likeable. The problem is that this chemistry kind of hurts the film. You can’t watch these two interact together and believe that they have never met or been in the same room together until the moment they meet on film.
The Taste
These issues are nitpicks though. Yet I feel that it is important to bring this issue up because Identity Thief is a movie that is trying to take itself seriously. There is a more serious story arch going on in between all of the jokes that wants to tug at the heart strings, and when you get to the last act, it works. So that is why I said that the direction should have been a bit less sloppy and the dialogue should have been a bit more realistic and this movie may have been a “Bum Buddy” classic like “Me Myself and Irene” or “Ted” (Bum Buddy comedies are movies where the audience and protagonist, have to like a Bum, who is a Buddy or becomes a Buddy)
It is time to answer the most important question or all. The story could be crap, the performances could be stellar, but was the movie FUNNY? Well, it had funny parts. I have to say, the marketing for this movie was gold. I thought I was in for my funniest day in the theater since, what, Ted? 21 Jump Street? (<<comedy gold) But, no, this movie was alright . It has some jokes that hit, and some jokes that are a complete miss. And there are some convoluted events that make me believe that this movie wanted to be a PG13 slap stick kid flick, but threw in some F bombs and a strange Sexual Scene that Way on the left field to secure an audience with big boy pants. I have to say, if they stuck with PG 13 the movie would have been much better, the vulgar scenes really look and feel forced and are awkward to say the least. But the slapstick PG13 scenes are the ones that got me laughing and match the tone of the movie when you get to the end. Its those moments that make you love McCarthy by the end of the movie.
The Rating
Time for the rating. I want to say one thing Melissa McCarthy steals this movie. She is an awesome actor and I genuinely liked her much more than Batemon, he was actually kind of a Penis in this movie. Which is weird but it melds with the message that the movie is trying to give you in the end . I feel that they should have made him a little more likeable because I relatively did not care what happened to him by the final act Other than that, Identity Thief is a fun ride that is better taken from the couch at home. Identity Thief you are :
Satisfying: Filling, but had better
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