Identity Thief (2013)
Certified: 16
Duration: 111 minutes
Director: Seth Gordon
Starring: Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Favreau, Amanda Peet, T.I., Génesis Rodríguez, Morris Chestnut, John Cho, Robert Patrick, Eric Stonestreet, Jonathan Banks
KRS release

Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) leads a simple life. He is married to Trish (Amanda Peet), who is pregnant, has two children and works in accounts in a huge Denver company.

Identity Thief will have fans of low-brow humour and slapstick comedy roar with laughter

His boring life turns upside down when he receives a call from confidence trickster Diana (Melissa McCarthy). She tells him that she represents a credit alert bureau and that there had been an attempt on his credit when in reality she just wants to get some of his private information. She succeeds, prints all the cards necessary in his name and goes off spending as much of his money as possible.

But soon Sandy discovers that he is chock-full of debt and that in Florida he is even wanted for aggravated assault.

All this happens when Sandy takes on a new job with Daniel (John Cho), who had been a fellow employee.

Daniel is given one week to clear his name, and when he finds who Diana is, he decides to go to Florida to bring her in. This is easier said than done as things get very complicated.

Diana is also being followed by Julian and Marisol (T.I. and Génesis Rodríguez), two tough guys of a local crime boss who is in prison, after Diana provided the latter with credit cards that were duds. Bounty hunter Skiptracer (Robert Patrick) is also on her trail.

Sandy must get Diana before anyone else and take her back to Denver and clear his name.

Made on a $35 million budget, Identity Thief made over $170 million at the US box office and its producers are still counting. Directed by Seth Gordon, who had already made a previous low-brow comic assault in the recent Horrible Bosses (2011), Identity Thief is never subtle and will have fans of low-brow humour and slapstick comedy roar with laughter.

The fun of it all lies at Bateman’s expense as he is simply trashed over and over by McCarthy who does it all with an insurmountable amount of glee. Her character is a sociopath of the highest degree but also a tornado in action.

The movie is more like a collection of skits tied together in a road movie format where everything that can go wrong actually does go wrong!

McCarthy’s comic turn in Bridesmaids (2011) had been that film’s highlight and garnered her lots of fans. Bateman cannot stand up to the girl and she runs over him like a deranged truck. He seems resigned to his fate. She makes herself out to be the modern version of the great comedian John Candy. She is a force of hilarious nature.