New Release: Identity Thief

I love Melissa McCarthy.  Just wanted to say that up front.  She was Sookie St. James in "Gilmore Girls", which I also loved, and now she's doing her own thing and I'm all for it.  I'm also a huge fan of Jason Bateman - "Arrested Development" is amazing.  So I went into this expecting to like it quite a bit - and honestly, I did. However, if you don't already like both of those actors, this movie isn't going to do much to convince you.  McCarthy plays Diana, an over the top con artist in Florida who has her own credit card making machine.  She scams people over the phone and gets their important info and then builds some credit cards for herself and then goes out to have fun on their dime.  One person she calls is Sandy Bigelow Patterson (a man with an androgynous name perfect for her needs) played by Bateman. He works for a jerk and is about to get a promotion leaving the firm.  Unfortunately, Diana has gotten arrested under her assumed name, and maxed out a few credit cards.  Sandy finally figures out what's going on, and tries to convince the police, and his boss who wants to fire him.  Even more unfortunately, she hasn't broken any laws in Denver, so the local cops don't care at all about the real Sandy's problems.  The only way they'll get involved if she shows up in Denver and confesses.  I don't know enough about how actual identity theft works, so I'm just going with their premise.  Sandy decides to go get her, offer not to press charges for the credit cards, as long as she talks to his boss and gets his job back. 

The rest of the movie is their misadventure to get back to Denver from Florida.  It turns out she's pissed off a few people in Florida (the rapper T.I. plays one of them) and of course has jumped bail for her mix-up with the law, so a bounty hunter is after her.  Of course things work out - and Diana only gets killed like 3 different times.  But they make the rest pretty much make sense, if hard to believe.  It's a similar idea of Due Date with the road trip and two totally crazy companions.  It's much better than Due Date, and funnier in some ways than Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but not as well written.  I liked the mix of characteristics they each bring to the story, and it made for some really funny moments.  However, if you're one of the incomprehensible people who doesn't already like these actors, then you might not like this.  Oh, and there's a scene with snakes that means I'll never be watching it again.