I missed Identity Thief during its theatrical run, but I didn’t hear good things about it (check out our own Jeremy Fogelman’s review). I love Melissa McCarthy, so I still wanted to give the film a look because comedy is subjective and I seem to find things funnier than others (or vice versa with the first two Hangover films). The story in a nutshell: Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) has his identity stolen and the only way he can bring the thief (McCarthy) to justice is to travel from his home in Denver to her whereabouts in Florida and haul her back to the cops.

The film wants desperately to be a comedic road trip, a la Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but the problem is the situation isn’t funny to begin with. If you’ve been unfortunate enough to have your identity stolen, you know it’s not in the least bit hilarious and the last thing you want to do is drive across country with the perp. Midway through the film, McCarthy’s character “Diana” gives Sandy a sob story about not knowing her real name because she was passed around from foster home to foster home as a child and that’s her excuse for what she does. I’m sorry, but trying to make this person sympathetic and then forgiving her for making Sandy’s life hell doesn’t float.

It also irked me that neither the cops nor Sandy’s new boss (played by John Cho) have an ounce of sympathy for his plight. Sandy nearly loses his new job because of his rampant debt … even though his boss knows full well what the situation is! Seriously, that made me so angry I wanted to throw something at the TV.

The movie becomes even more schizophrenic with Diana’s apparent superhuman ability to withstand any kind of injury, and the addition of two thugs whose boss (Jonathan Banks) wants Diana dead (we never really know why that I can recall) and another bounty hunter, or Skiptracer (Robert Patrick), is also on her tail (and everyone always manages to show up just at the right time to get in each others’ way). I do like Bateman, who has his everyman schlub act down to perfection at this point, and McCarthy but I fear she is going to be one of those actors who can only play different variations of the same character (and I don’t think The Heat is going to change that perception).

Universal’s new Blu-ray (and DVD) offers two versions of the film: the 112-minute theatrical version and the 121-minute, unrated extended cut. The video image is sharp, but it seemed to be leaning a bit much to the orange side of the spectrum (by comparison, the alternate take clips look perfectly fine). I don’t know if they boosted the saturation for the Blu-ray, but it really didn’t look good (the DVD also looks overly saturated). The Blu-ray comes with a few extras:

• Gag reel (00:48) — so short that it’s hardly worth your time, and not very funny either.
• Alternate takes (5:07) — different variations on takes in the film showing some of the improv that went on during the shoot.
• The Making of Identity Thief (17:04) — Cast and crew discuss how the movie came about and all the fun they had making it, which never translates to the finished film.
• Scene Stealing: Capturing the Humor of Identity Thief (7:35) — The cast and director talk about the comedy and improv that made everyone laugh while filming.
• The Skiptracer’s Van Tour (3:33) — Robert Patrick gives a tour of his character’s van while in character.

The DVD bonus material only includes the Gag Reel and The Making of Identity Thief. Audio and subtitles options are English, French and Spanish. A Digital Copy and Ultraviolet version of the film are also available with the Blu-ray/DVD combo package.

In the end, you have to decide if this is the type of film you’ll find funny but to me it was just trying to make light of a situation that isn’t funny at all, and neither actor is able to make the uneven script work to their advantage.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Blu-ray/DVD combo provided to CliqueClack by Universal Home Video and The Karpel Group.

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It’s an interesting world we live in, with modern conveniences and dangers alike. We can use credit cards nearly anywhere in the country, and when we can’t, cash still works. It’s easy to apply for as many credit cards as our credit allows — but it’s easy for someone to take advantage of the naive and gullible. Sometimes you might think “why can’t the real jerks get taken down?” — those titans of industry that screw up and get bailed out — and then you realize “oh, because that would be too satisfying.” Instead, decent and relatively normal people are the victims because the script can’t be as daring as it so desperately wants to be.

Identify Thief, from director Seth Gordon (of Horrible Bosses), takes a legitimately awful thing that happens to people and makes a bad movie out of it. Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) is an important, if not fancy, cog in the machine of a financial company in Denver. He gets the chance to leave his company and awful boss (Jon Favreau, making a welcome but very brief appearance) to work with others (led by John Cho) tired of not getting recognition. I bet Sandy’s beautiful wife (Amanda Peet) and ridiculously adorable children (real life sisters Mary-Charles and Maggie Elizabeth Jones) are pleased as punch that they don’t have to scrape for every dime any more! You see, the movie goes out of its way to present this setup — a very decent, if mildly ambitious and talented family man that finally gets a break. So when Sandy’s identity is stolen by Diana (Melissa McCarthy) because Sandy is just too gullible (sadly plausible), you can really despise Diana.

Sure hope she gets her just desserts for that!

But because of plot contrivances and lack of sense, Sandy must physically go to Florida and bring Diana back to Denver if he wants to clear up the problem. Yeah, that’s … well, it’s stupid. But you could forgive that, and any other plot holes if the movie was funny. Unfortunately, this movie doesn’t know what it wants to be — it fails as a dark comedy and a slapstick romp. And the attempts at pathos and emotion just don’t work. When the movie attempts to paint Diana as anything but the clear sociopath she is, it falls flat. Despite Melissa McCarthy’s best efforts, her tears just seem out of place. Bringing in more and more wacky characters, like drug dealers, a bounty hunter (Robert Patrick, who is one of the only consistently funny performers), and … I don’t even want to get into the bizarre interlude with Eric Stonestreet as a depressed cowboy … these only serve to make the movie muddled and cartoonish.

When Bugs Bunny hits Elmer Fudd with an anvil, we may laugh — but don’t ask us to take a tragic backstory about Elmer’s struggle with stuttering seriously. I put the blame for this movie’s failures primarily on the script. The acting in the movie is not bad — everyone is doing their best, and you can tell. But the plot is paper thin and cliched, and the jokes aren’t funny enough to save it. And I’m sick of a joke consisting of a fat lady filmed in slow-motion while a rap song is playing. We get, she’s fat and uncool!

Too bad — there was potential in these characters for a real dark comedy. That’s the movie it should’ve been, not this tonally inconsistent mess.

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