Identity Thief

Starring;

Jason Bateman
Melissa McCarthy
Genesis Rodriguez
T.I
Robert Patrick
John Cho

Director;

Seth Gordon

In three words; Fun - Disjointed - Poor

Review;

The evergreen Jason Bateman stars as wet behind the ears Sandy Patterson whose identity is stolen by perpetual thief Diana played by Melissa McCarthy. Sandy works at a large investment firm. Due to lack of opportunities and that his boss from hell, played by Jon Favreau, refuses to pay anyone lower from him any bonuses, he agrees to move to a new company which is set up by his fellow disgruntled colleagues.

As Sandy starts his new dream job he discovers that his identity has been stolen and he is heading for financial ruin and will also lose his job. He is given a week by his new boss Daniel (Cho) to sort the mess out. Given the lack of assistance form the Police Sandy heads to Florida where Diana has been spending his hard earned cash. His plan is to bring her to Denver to clear his name.

This is where the road movie begins. The problem Identity Thief has is attempting to live up to such quality road movies such as Midnight Run, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Little Miss Sunshine. The standard is high in these films and with Bateman and McCarthy in the lead roles I hoped they could reach at least the mid table standard which was displayed in Todd Phillip’s Due Date. However, they fall far too short of this mark due to a poor script and unnecessary characters.

As Sandy attempts to drive the two thousand mile journey with Diana they are pursued by Marisol (Rodriguez) and Julian (T.I) who Diana sold stolen credit cards to but they were unable to use. They are also being chased by a hired bounty hunter (Patrick) as Diana has a big reward on her head. It is at this part of the film where the story is stretched and disjointed. There are too many involved in the pursuit and the focus is taken away from the two lead characters who start to struggle to bring any laughs from the rather poor script.

There are a few scenes which work and this is down to the talents of Bateman and McCarthy but we don’t get enough chance to see their relationship blossom. Furthermore the characters played by Rodriguez and T.I are just not needed. Patrick is underused and the film suffers for it. It feels that this script has been through far too many rewrites. There was potential here but it falls far too short of the line.

Verdict;

2 out of 5.