Weekly rewind: February 14
BY MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer
Thursday, February 14, 2013
2/14/13 at 5:48 AM
For expanded review, visit tulsaworld.com/movies.
"Identity Thief"
Rating: 
(on a scale of zero to four stars)
In "Identity Thief," Jason Bateman plays a Colorado financial firm employee who finds his identity has been stolen by a woman in Florida.
It gets so bad that it appears as if he is committing fraud with his credit card and is also mixed up with a drug cartel. Melissa McCarthy plays the woman, a degenerate, compulsive crook who ruins other people's lives.
If this doesn't sound hilarious yet, just wait: The spin, now that Bateman's character is about to be arrested and lose his job, is that he will go to Florida and bring the woman back to Colorado. She will apologize to his boss and explain everything to him, with the police listening in secretly so that they can arrest her with a confession.
OK, says the boss. Sounds good, says the cop.
Sounds stupid and completely unbelievable if you're an average moviegoer with a brain.
It doesn't help that there is almost zero chemistry between Bateman and McCarthy, who is so crude here that it's embarrassing how the producers (Bateman is one of them) are trading almost solely on her "Bridesmaids" raunchiness. When you have to carry a movie as one of the leads rather than a supporting character, uncomfortable sex jokes alone won't do it.
"Identity Thief" is a stupid movie based on a stupid idea and featuring only stupid characters, which never works. There has to be at least one main character with a brain to contrast the dopes, and this movie doesn't have one.
I like dumb fun that grows organically out of ridiculous situations. But dumb is dumb, and as much as Bateman and his filmmaking partners want to make something resembling the classic "Midnight Run," drawing any other comparison between the two movies would be the biggest joke of all.
Now showing
| Movie | Rating (on 4 scale) |
| Argo | |
| The Impossible | |
| Zero Dark Thirty | |
| Django Unchained | |
| Lincoln | |
| Monsters, Inc. 3-D | |
| Warm Bodies | |
| Mama | |
| Silver Linings Playbook | |
| Life of Pi | |
| Rise of the Guardians | |
| Broken City | |
| The Last Stand | |
| Hyde Park on Hudson | |
| Les Miserables | |
| Jack Reacher | |
| Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 | |
| Bullet to the Head | |
| Gangster Squad | |
| This Is 40 | |
| The Hobbit | |
| Identity Thief | |
| Stand Up Guys | |
| Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters | |
| Movie 43 | no stars |
— MICHAEL SMITH AND NOUR HABIB, World Scene Writers
