Pauls Valley, Oklahoma — Some of the greatest comedy moments in film history have included quite a few instances where the jerk of the story is served a dose of hilarious revenge. However, if a writer or director is trying to present said character with a redemption moment before it is all over, being too much of a bung hole can do little to make the audience forgiving when that time comes.
This flick presents an excellent example of that point through the character Diana (Melissa McCarthy), who wastes no time in becoming so hated through her theft of Sandy Bigelow Patterson’s identity (Jason Bateman) that we don’t want to settle for her downfall, one actually wants to see her terminated in the most graphic way possible. Diana doesn’t belong as the torturer of this poor man’s character; she should be cast as a super villain on the Avengers’ sequel. “Identity Thief” is without a doubt funny to the core, though it might even be more of a winner without borrowing most of McCarthy’s low brow punch lines from Rosanne Barr.
What plot there is left to explain pretty much focuses on Sandy, a pushover accountant tired of being pushed around by the world around him, who goes on this quest to hold Diana accountable. Though he flies in to nab this hobbit sized criminal, things only crash from there as a road trip from hell ensues and even when they start to bond with each other, she’s still pretty much not selling anything other than being one of the worst people ever.
Then again, despite not feeling sorry for this lowly person, the ending is not all that bad. I sincerely hope they leave this flick without any further chapters as one showing will do just about any audience. It’s also something that I only recommend for adults with language and adult content that is not so much overly mature, but likely horrifying for those young enough to be scarred.
The supporting cast has its moments, though usually disposed of after one decent laugh, the funniest two being Diana’s brief fling Big Chuck (Eric Stonestreet) and an off kilter bounty hunter named Skiptracer (Robert Patrick). As far as what the director, Seth Gordon, has helped lead I would recommend his previous film “Horrible Bosses” as a much better accomplishment.
That being said, “Identity Thief” earns a verdict of two out of five credit reports.
Movie viewing experience courtesy of the Royal Twin Theater of Pauls Valley.
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