Identity Thief [2013]

Meet Jason Bateman, the new Average Joe (well, I guess more accurate title would be Average Upper-Middle-Class Joe). He has perfected his role of a guy who keeps having the worst life in the world that I can hardly imagine him in any other role…It’s a curse to find a role that you play so well that no one will cast you for anything other than that. So for now, we have a standard issue working dad and he is missing something to spice up his boring life. And that thing is a lovely little chubby girl, oh did I say lovely, I meant fucking lethal. Melissa McCarthy is the man, and I really mean it. Usually we get male chubby comical relief guys, but she reclaimed this role. Identity Thief is a raunchy, adult comedy striving to be hilarious and actually pulling it off sometimes (but not always). Slapstick humor is another thing that I like in a comedy, and if you like it too, I am sure that you will like our little identity thief.

Sandy Patterson, what a fucking name, Sandy, a source of endless jokes. Anyways, Sandy is climbing the corporate ladder slowly; well actually, he’s not climbing it as much as he’s hanging on to it. Married with a beautiful wife and with two children, his life isn’t as bad as you would think (especially with Amanda Peet as his wife). That’s all gonna change when he gets a call from a spa in Florida is reminding him of his appointment there. Never having been to Florida, Sandy starts getting suspicious, but it’s too late. His credit cards are all maxed out, and there’s a warrant out for his arrest. Due to the jurisdictional laziness, it seems that no one can help him with his stolen identity. No one but himself, so he decides to go to Florida personally and sort all this out, but he is in for a quite a surprise…

Speaking of liking our little identity thief, although she is really comical and entertaining, I think that what she does is just plain wrong (at least from a perspective of a potential victim, I don’t really care for other people). A couple of things bothered people in Identity Thief, one of them being the reality of the whole situation. I mean come on guys, this is a movie, and a laugh out loud comedy, reality went out of the window when I saw Bateman’s face. Granted, movie tries to evoke emotions and empathy where there’s clearly no room for them, but still if you take this just as a fun ride that lasts for ninety minutes, you can swallow a little of that crap, enjoy…

Director: Seth Gordon

Writers:  Craig Mazin, Jerry Eeten

Cast: Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Favreau, Amanda Peet, T.I., John Cho, Robert Patrick

Fun Facts: Every car they took, except for the original rental car, has a crushed can of Red Bull on the dash.

Rating:

IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024432/