Identity Thief (2013) - McCarthy entertains as hellish woman in lesser film

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Two amusing shots of stars Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy fill out this simple poster for Seth Gordon's Identity Thief

Stacy lives a reasonable family life, when his identity gets stolen and abused crudely by a madly materialistic con lady in Florida. In order to get his life back on track, he crosses the country to catch the culprit.

 

Identity Thief is written by Craig Mazin (Scary Movie 3 (2003)), with Jerry Eeten (Elvis Took a Bullet (2001)) contributing story elements, and Seth Gordon (Four Christmases (2008)).

The tone is uneven, ranging between crass and warmly human, however without the latter quality ever settling because the film (similarly to Gordon's preceding comedy Horrible Bosses (2011)) lacks heart.

Melissa McCarthy (The Heat (2013)) is game, and she reveals several assets in her considerable talent, - more than her character can really carry, actually, - but her performance gives Identity Thief its worthwhile core and the laughs that it produces, among others in a couple of funny scenes with Eric Stonestreet (The Loft (2014)) as Big Chuck, and one with Ben Falcone (Life of the Party (2018)) as a motel desk clerk. SPOILER That Jason Bateman's (Central Intelligence (2016)) Stacy character eventually learns from McCarthy's pathological liar and even forgives her is a huge stretch, and a poorly designed CGI snake and the not exactly inventive action villains on their tails also work to weigh down this highly  fiscally successful star vehicle. Over-all though, McCarthy deserves a better director and script than is provided here.

 

Related post:

 

Seth Gordon: Horrible Bosses (2011) - The stars nearly make up for this rackety Hollywood raunch vehicle

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 35 mil. $

Box office: 173.9 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.96 times its cost)

[Identity Thief was released 7 October (Croatia) and runs 111 minutes. McCarthy's character was originally written for a man, but Bateman insisted that she was cast after seeing her performance in Bridesmaids (2011). Shooting took place in Georgia, Colorado and Tennessee. The film opened #1 to a 34.5 mil. $, spending another 5 weekends in the top 5, one of which was again at #1, grossing 134.5 mil. $ (77.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were UK with 7.4 mil. $ (4.3 %) and Australia with 7 mil. $ (4 %). The film additionally made in excess of an estimated 35.6 mil. $ on the domestic home video market as well. Gordon returned with 4 TV credits prior to his theatrical return, Baywatch (2017). McCarthy returned in The Hangover Part III (2013); Bateman in Bad Words (2013). Identity Thief is rotten at 20 % with a 4.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

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