Identity Thief is closer to the bottom of the barrel than the tip of the iceberg for everyone involved. It's not really one or the other...it's just closer. It's a mostly tedious comedy with a few witty moments. However, considering the fact that a very smart, very funny movie could be made out of this premise...it is awfully disappointing. Poor Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy try their best but the fact of the matter is that Identity Thief wants to have its cake and eat it too and ends up just plain not working.
Bateman stars as Sandy Bigelow Patterson who has recently had his identity stolen by a woman named Diana (McCarthy.) The most prominent joke in the film is that Sandy is a female name and Diana is taking advantage of that fact (ho-ho.) Due to a cop (Morris Chestnut) not being able to do anything about her crimes unless she's right in front of him....Sandy travels from Colorado to Florida in order to get Diana arrested.
The main problem with the film is that the film tries to be both sympathetic to its characters and make them complete movie characters. Diana is a complete liar and yet we're supposed to feel that there's more to her than meets the eye while Sandy is a nice, logical guy but we're supposed to believe he'll find a reason to befriend Diana. The film also has too much going on for its own good. This would explain its way too long run time of 110 minutes. The audience gets both a bounty hunter and two hired assassins chasing after Diana. After a while...all of it becomes just plain ridiculous and boring. And yes...most of the time ridiculous and boring go hand in hand with each other.
Yes...Bateman and McCarthy do have some nice moments together. However, there is no real flow to Identity Thief. The film lacks any real laugh out loud moments that this type of film needs to succeed. As well---it becomes too nice at the end and completely contradicts the first 90 minutes. This film won't exactly ruin any careers but I'd suggest waiting for Netflix on this one.
(2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for sexual content and language)
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