Identity Thief

Year: 2013
Genre: Comedy
Director: Seth Gordon


Plot: A man loses his identity after getting duped into giving his personal information to a female stranger over the phone, and must find her to reclaim his life and job.


The gist: Identity Thief is a lot like Due Date, as in it's a road trip comedy pairing off two people who have nothing in common, and they have to get somewhere. In this case, Jason Bateman is the poor sap who was stupid enough to give up his personal details to Melissa McCarthy over the phone. 

She takes control of his credit cards and starts a spending spree, so he locates her and tries to get her back to his city across state lines so that she can face justice and he gets his life back. Predictably, this is where the two would normally get into various shenanigans and bond over their pasts etc, as most road trip comedies do. Problem is, it's just not funny.

Seth Gordon tries his best to throw the duo into all sorts of supposedly funny situations, but most of them don't stick. If you think watching a fat cowboy take his pants off or finding a snake crawl up someone's jeans or watching someone rub McCarthy's legs while she pretends to have a cramp is funny, then go see this. I didn't think it was funny.


The good: Bateman and McCarthy at the very least work well off each other, the former as the straight and honest guy and the latter as the conwoman with a sad past.

The bad: As stated, it's not as funny as it could have been. The potential was there, but mostly wasted.


Verdict: It doesn't quite work as a comedy, despite the leads' best efforts. Pass on this. (2.5/5)