{"id":4590,"date":"2013-02-07T13:30:50","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T21:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=4590"},"modified":"2013-02-07T13:30:50","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T21:30:50","slug":"identity-thief-not-terrible-just-not-funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=4590","title":{"rendered":"IDENTITY THIEF Not Terrible Just Not Funny"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThere is a point about mid-way through \u201cIdentity Thief\u201d where Melissa McCarthy breaks down and starts dumping tears down her cheeks. It\u2019s a raw, honest moment where she sheds the fa\u00e7ade and gives us something real. It\u2019s the best part of the film, hands down.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nMcCarthy\u2019s co-star has a great scene too. There\u2019s Jason Bateman, clad in hobo\u2019s pants, beat and battered and fed up with the world. He\u2019s had enough and throws in the towel from the core of his soul. Very solid stuff. It\u2019s the dramatic moments that resonate here but the problem is that \u201cIdentity Thief\u201d is striving for comedy and the funny is missing. Bateman and McCarthy seize the opportunity to stretch but go so far away from hilarious that the movie fails.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nBateman is Sandy Patterson. It\u2019s a girl\u2019s name, sure, and the script reminds us of this about 12 times. He is an underappreciated Everyman who struggles to get noticed at his job at a Colorado-based investment firm. His asshole boss (Jon Favreau) treats him like trash so when another job opportunity arises, Patterson is quick out the door for a bigger and brighter future. One small problem: His identity has been stolen and his credit is ruined instantly. Not a good thing if you work in the financial field.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nHe has one week to find the person responsible (Spoiler Alert: It\u2019s Mellissa McCarthy) and straighten out the tangled mess. He finds her rather easy in Winter Park, FL. which apparently is home of the Orange Tan. Her name is Diana and she is a professional con artist with a home full of crap from her exploits. Sandy is not the only one after her as a bounty hunter and some small time thugs are also in search of the sweet creature. The rest is a road trip movie following the reluctant pair through many adventures. Wacky. The adventures are wacky.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nBut not wacky enough. \u201cIdentity Thief\u201d features likable characters and has a generally pleasant feel to it but doesn\u2019t go anywhere. I love these performers and they give performances but it\u2019s not enough. The film is directed by Seth Gordon who gave us 2011\u2019s \u201cHorrible Bosses\u201d. Many of the same themes are hit on here as the Have-Nots go to desperate measures to take what they want from the Haves. In fact, the scene between Bateman and Favreau as asshole boss could have been pulled directly from \u201cBosses\u201d.<\/strong>
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\nThe soundtrack features a meandering, beatless feel with twangy guitars wailing intermittently. For some reason it sounds like an episode of \u201cSwamp People\u201d. It\u2019s annoying and out of place. Once you remove Bateman and McCarthy from the equation, all those around them are flat and clich\u00e9d.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nI found the film frustrating as it just creeps to the cusp of funny and just stays there, teasing but never delivering. \u201cIdentity Thief\u201d isn\u2019t terrible, it\u2019s just disappointing.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a point about mid-way through \u201cIdentity Thief\u201d where Melissa McCarthy breaks down and starts dumping tears down her cheeks. It\u2019s a raw, honest moment where she sheds the fa\u00e7ade and gives us something real. It\u2019s the best part of the film, hands down. McCarthy\u2019s co-star has a great scene too. There\u2019s Jason Bateman, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9647,10407,13668,18066],"class_list":["post-4590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-identity-thief","tag-jason-bateman","tag-melissa-mccarthy","tag-seth-gordon"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}