Identity Thief

March 8, 2013 - Melissa McCarthy goes over-the-top with raunchiness in this comedy that also stars Jason Bateman. Bateman pal Jon Favreau appears briefly as do other actors including Robert Patrick and Amanda Peet.

Bateman plays Sandy, an androgenously named accountant in Colorado. When he's passed over for a promotion, he defects to a start-up firm along with some of his co-workers. But, on Day 1, the head of the new firm tells Sandy that his credit rating is so bad that it will scare away clients. Sandy realizes his identity has been stolen, and he's given one week to sort things out or lose his new job for good.

McCarthy plays Diana, the identity thief. Sandy tracks her to Florida, where Diana has been charging everything she can think of to his credit cards. Sandy's plan is to go to Florida and bring Diana back to Denver to face justice. But, of course, it's not quite that simple. Sandy and Diana end up in Denver, alright, but not without some obnoxiously wild adventures along the way.

Overall review: ** At just under two hours long, this movie seemed a lot longer. Bateman plays the straight man to McCarthy's funny woman. But, with a few exceptions, I didn’t find the crude humor in this movie very funny. Overall, I think the movie suffers from an identity crisis of its own. Is it a revenge movie? A chase movie? A friendship movie? It tries to be all of them and never succeeds at any of them.