Identity Thief
Dir: Seth Gordon
2013
*
The basic idea of going after your own Identity thief is a good one, full of potential. Unfortunately that potential is far from explored. This really is just a lame impersonation of Due Date which was in turn a lame impersonation of Planes, Trains and Automobiles. As ever though, Jason Bateman plays the straight man in a comedy role rather well, I can fault only his career choices. Melissa McCarthy however is no John Candy. She's not even a Zach Galifianakis and he's pretty crap too. I don't dislike her because she is fat, I dislike her because she is woefully unfunny and tries to use her weight as a 'Get out of Jail comedy card'. Fat doesn't equal funny. Nor does rubbish improvisation. Honestly, improvisation is an art when done well and I haven't seen it done well in a very long time. I quite like the ending (although Jason Bateman's character gets off lightly eh?) but the inconsistency of the characters is down to lazy writing. Was Horrible Bosses a bit of luck or not as good as I thought it was?