While stars Jason Bateman (“Arrested Development”) and Melissa McCarthy (“Mike & Molly”) have shown quite a bit of comedic talent in previous films and television shows, the filmmakers behind “Identity Thief” leave them out to dry with script that’s not entirely sure if it wants to be a gross-out comedy, an action comedy or a heart-warming comedy. Regardless, it fails at all three.
“Identity Thief” opens with everyman Sandy Bigelow Patterson (Bateman) falling for a scam over the phone where he gives out his social security number, full name and birthday to loud and crass identity thief Diana (McCarthy) who has a fondness for punching people in the throat. She then proceeds to party it up in Florida, buying countless drinks for bar attendees and spending a ridiculous amount of money on flashy items under Sandy’s name.
Sandy eventually becomes aware of this and talks to the police, who apparently can’t do much for him since Diana is out of their jurisdiction. He decides to fly from Colorado to Florida to pick her up and take her back to Colorado by car. The circumstances that lead up to the two making that trip by car is hard to believe.
Regardless, “Identity Thief” aims to be an odd couple road trip comedy in which one highly irritable and slightly uptight character is stuck with an obliviously obnoxious individual he really doesn’t want to be with, in the vein of “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”, and most recently, “Due Date”.
And just like in those movies, the trip can’t just go smoothly. Diana has a bounty hunter (Robert Patrick, “Last Resort”) and two-drug runners (T.I., “Boss”, and Genesis Rodriguez, “The Last Stand”) chasing and shooting at her and Sandy. This is where the movie tries to be an action comedy.
The gross-out comes in when Diana attempts to make Sandy, who refuses to let her out of his sight, uncomfortable by inviting a male suitor to the hotel room they share. And the heart kicks in when Jason Bateman eventually comes to sympathize with Diana’s situation. These plot points don’t blend well and on top of all of that, the movie just isn’t very funny, despite the efforts of the two leads.
“Identity Thief” is, at best, something to catch on Netflix on a boring night.
