Movie Review : Identity Thief

Identity thieves are becoming more and more aggressive and taking advantage of more people each day. This movie trys to put a comic spin on this very serious situation.

Movie opens up with Sandy Bigelow ( Jason Bateman ) a financial executive having some moral issues at work and being pressured by a group of co-workers to quit and form their own business. All this comes at a time when his wife of two is currently pregnant with another child. Money is tight and he is stressed and at that time Diana ( Melissa McCarthy ) makes her move and calls Jason's Sandy and convinces him that he is a victim of fraud and gives her all the information to rob him of thousands and plunge his credit score to the low 200's. At the same time his new job doesn't trust him anymore as all this information is now known to them but they give him one week to make it right. He takes it upon himself to find Diana and bring her back to his work to confess to what she has done. It shouldn't be this hard but the local police tell Sandy that the only way they can do something is if she is right in front of them and if not then they just have to rely on other police agencies to get the job done. With her in Florida and Sandy in Colorado that just complicates things even more.

Sandy heads on down to Florida to get Diana which obviously is easier said than done. Once they do meet up and after a few fist a cuffs he convinces her to come back with him to clear his name as long as she doesn't have to deal with police. He figures out that flying is out of the question so they must drive all the way back. Once on the road we found out that Diana has wronged other people which should come as no surprise and they have sent their henchmen after her which Sandy now has to deal with. The typical car problems and henchmen getting in each other's way that we see in movies is done here. After Sandy and Diana navigate through those roadblocks they find themselves back in Colorado. Once there the movie takes a turn into an unrealistic scenario. In the end Sandy is cleared and everything is back on the up and up. Diana gets what she deserves yet they do manage to show her in a better light as expected in a comedy.

Verdict : With these two leads recent track record with Jason appearing in Horrible Bosses and The Change-Up which are superior to this film and Melissa with a great career on the small screen I thought this would be a good team up. I left the theater with a mixed feeling. Though they were both funny for the most part as with most comedies with a close to a two hour run time it felt that it was about 20-30 minutes long. There were a few slow spots that messed up the rhythm of the movie. The supporting characters while fine when on screen were forgettable for the most part and a waste of their talents. Amanda Peet as Sandy's wife was the worst as she only showed up on screen or on the phone as a worried wife. Nothing more nothing less. One standout was a loner by the name of Chuck that Diana picks up at a local bar and takes back to the hotel room. That scene got the biggest laughs from me. While enjoyable this movie is best suited for the small screen. A THUMBS UP to a viewing at home but save your money for the big screen for a better flick.