Identity Thief

"Director Seth Gordon’s follow-up to Horrible Bosses takes another slight sit-com plot and pumps it to full-length proportions. Sandy (Jason Bateman) travels from Denver to Florida to confront Diana (Melissa McCarthy), who’s stolen his identity and is living it large courtesy of his cash. Thanks to inept police, the stars end up an odd couple on a road trip akin to Planes, Trains and Automobiles – with Bateman in the put-upon straight-man Steve Martin role, and McCarthy a sociopathic version of John Candy. But without a decent script on which to hang their shtick, the pair is too often left floundering."

"With Identity Thief, Melissa McCarthy proves she's got what it takes to carry a feature, however meager the underlying material."

"Melissa McCarthy’s over-the-top performance as a low-rung grifter enlivens what is otherwise a groan-worthy odd-couple comedy."

"No matter how may times Identity Thief switches tracks, nothing works — it fails as a star vehicle, a recession-era satire, a WTF white-collar-grunt revenge tale, a "Midnight Run"–style buddy flick, a gross-out laughfest and a bathetic tale of broken souls. No amount of stolen guises can fix it."

"As is the case with other unsatisfactory diversions, it is entirely possible to ignore the worst parts of this movie... and just wait for Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Bateman to do their things."

"It is reliant on McCarthy's comedy chops and her ability to deliver improv-type character material, but almost every single one of her scenes looks like an outtake."

"Its stars steal so many laughs from such improbable places that the bumps in this revenge/road trip farce can be mostly forgiven, though not forgotten."

"Another rough comic movie road trip helps give car travel a bad name."

"Clever premise, witless execution."

"It wants to be "Midnight Run" meets "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," but it carries little of the dramatic heft and real-world semi-plausibility of those much superior efforts."

"Identity Thief establishes its priorities: Expansive character business is front and center; actual character-building is in the margins, almost off the map."