Identity Thief

COMEDY

She's Having the Time of His Life

★ ★ ★ out of 5 | DVD or Rental

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Rated: R Sexual content and language.
Release Date: February 8, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 51 minutes

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Director: Seth Gordon
Writers: Craig Mazin, Jerry Eeten
Cast: Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Favreau, Amanda Peet, T.I., Genesis Rodriguez, Morris Chestnut, John Cho, Robert Patrick, Eric Stonestreet

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SYNOPSIS:  Mild-mannered businessman Sandy Patterson travels from Denver to Miami to confront the deceptively harmless-looking woman who has been living it up after stealing Sandy's identity.

REVIEW: Seth Gordon, director of big screen Horrible Bosses and Four Christmases and small screen Breaking In, takes another crack at slap-stick comedy with Identity Thief. Reteaming with Jason Bateman, Gordon takes a story by The Hangover Part II writer Craig Mazin and The Watchman writer Jerry Eeten to find out how far a man will go to reclaim his name.

Sandy Bigelow Patterson (Jason Bateman, Horrible Bosses) works for PFG as an internal accounts manager. When he mistakenly gives up his personal information to an identity thief posing as Sandy Bigelow Patterson (Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids), his world is turned upside down with sudden overdrawn credit cards, defaulted payments, and an arrest for a failure to appear in front of a judge in Florida. When the Denver PD detective Reilly (Morris Chestnut, Think Like a Man) shows Sandy a mugshot of the real female culprit, Sandy is still unable to clear his name in time to avert issues at home with his wife Trish (Amanda Peet, 2012) and a lucrative new job he hired on for with boss Daniel Casey (John Cho, Total Recall). Bent on clearing his name, Sandy travels to Florida with the plan to confront and transport the faux Sandy back to Denver to clear his name. But his plans go out the window when the fake sandy, aka Diana, becomes the target of disgruntled criminals Marisol (Genesis Rodrigeuz, The Last Stand) and Julian (Tip 'T.I' Harris, Takers) who were cheated with bad fake credit cards. Sandy talks Diana into traveling on the road with him over staring down the barrel of a gun meant to kill her. But every tank of gas and every swipe of a card get the duo into more danger and more dire situations. Can Sandy clear his name before he has to resort to Diana's criminal methods to get home?

Jason Bateman plays a role that he loves to play. His character Sandy is just trying to make ends meet and provide for his family. Like roles played by the put upon Ben Stiller, Jason Bateman is usually the put upon guy who just can't seem to rise to the occasion to make a better life for himself and his family. But as he tries to do the right thing to reclaim his life, Jason's Sandy is forced to face the fact that the way he's been brought up to provide is not necessarily the only way to deal with things. Couple Bateman's Sandy with the hurricane that is Melissa McCarthy's Diana and there really is no chance for Sandy to come away unscathed. Melissa McCarthy brings her own brand of kinetic and physical humor to her role as Diana as the thief just trying to get by in life in her own way.

But for as much friction Diana causes Sandy, it's not the only conflict with the film. Genesis Rodriguez's Marisol, T.I.'s Julian and Robert Patrick's (Gangster Squad) skiptracer bring even more angst to the already angst-ridden Sandy Bigelow Pattersons. With gun battles, car chases, police intervention and more, Sandy and Diana have much more to contend with than just each other.

The trailers make Identity Thief look like a simple goofball comedy. The laughs in the trailer and commercials aren't the only laughs, but there is more to it the story that just silly comedy. At the center of the story is a drama that goes deeper than just stealing tchotchkes under an assumed name. Melissa McCarthy surprises with her range as an actress, while Jason Bateman reinforces why he is one of the go to guys for stoic split-second comic timing.

Identity Thief is a silly comedy with a good mix of action, drama, and a touching moral theme. Bateman and McCarthy are a fine team, even if they tend to hit each other over the head with  an acoustic guitar or punch each other in the throat. You will chuckle, and maybe feel a little. Just keep a watch on your wallet.

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The Change-Up

The Old Switch-a-Roo

Director: David Dobkin
Writers: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Cast: Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, Olivia Wilde, Leslie Mann, Alan Arkin


SYNOPSIS: A over-worked, career-driven lawyer and married father Dave switches bodies with his wild-living actor-wannabe bachelor best friend Mitch, leading to chaos and disasters in both of their original lives.

REVIEW: David Dobkins, director of Shanghai Knights, Wedding Crashers and Fred Claus, takes a tale of body switching from The Hangover scribes Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. It's the same old classic story of two people (son and father, mother and daughter, friends) - who lead different lives, change bodies, explore the possibilities of the other person's life to ill effect, make personal self-discoveries about their lives, and yearn to be switched back to their old lives before the change is permanent.

A comedy body-switching sub-genre that includes Freak Friday in all of its iterations, Like Father, Like Son, 17 Again and Big, The Change-Up looks to ramp up the raunchiness with their rated-R version of this formulaic comedy main-stay. Stoic, straight man Jason Bateman teams up with the green ring-slinger Ryan Reynolds as polar opposite best friends Dave Lockwood and Mitch Planko. Dave Lookwood is the father of three whose self-imposed drive to further his career demands so much of his attention that he has little time for his wife Jamie (played with grace, humor and heart by Leslie Mann). On the other side of the body-switching coin is Mitch Planko who struggles through life aided by a schedule full of sex, herbs and paper, a GED and a laundry list of poor decision making. After a night of bar drinking, Dave and Mitch pee in a fountain and wish for each other's life, causing a rolling blackout and a seemingly permanent change in their minds and body. Dave, in Mitch's body, must abandon his mindset of always working and never relaxing, while Mitch, in Dave's body, must figure out how to handle the rigid schedules of ballet practices, 3am feedings of twins, and navigate his way through a merger agreement and documents that the real Dave had been preparing for months.

Leslie Mann comes on board as Dave's wife Jamie, a woman who is happy with the lifestyle Dave has provided for her and the kids and just wants Dave to slow down and give her a little attention. Olivia Wilde from Cowboys & Aliens joins the cast as legal eagle Sabrina who catches the eyes of both Dave and Mitch, regardless of what body they inhabit. Alan Arkin cameos as Mitch's father, hoping for a son who wants to turn his live around and finish at least one thing that he starts.

The R-rating offers a couple gross out laughs, a few of topless ladies, and more explicit language. There are some hits, but a lot of missed opportunities. One of the twins, before the 3am changings and feedings, continues to bang his head against the rail of his crib. Its mildly funny the first time, but quickly loses its ability to instill a laugh each time we see it again. The father/son relationship with Mitch and his father could have been developed more to give us some more tenderness. Most of the heart of the film comes from Leslie Mann's Jamie as she continues to stand by her man with the realization that she may become numb to the problems of the marriage. Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman play their duel roles well enough, but I know both have such wider ranges than what appears on screen.

Ultimately, The Change-Up will make you laugh a little, cry a little, and smile a little. In the end, though, The Change-Up could have very easily switches places with some of the other lesser worthy films in the genre. I love every actor and actress cast in the lead roles, but I think that maybe some of them wished they had woken up in the bodies of another film as well.

WORTH: Rental

Horrible Bosses

Working-Class Comedy

Director: Seth Gordon

Writers: Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein

Stars: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx

SYNOPSIS: Three friends conspire to murder each other's horrible bosses.

REVIEW: Seth Gordon, director of such television hits as Modern Family, The Office and Community, brings to life the trials and tribulations of three friends with different jobs and a singular problem - they work for horrible bosses. Jason Bateman stars as Nick Hendricks who works for Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) with the false promise of advancement to a key position if Nick works endless hours. Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia plays Dale Arbus, a dental technician with a checkered past and an inappropriate aggressive black-mailing man-eater Dr. Juila Harris, D.D.S. (Jennifer Aniston) as a boss. Finally, Jason Sudeikis plays Kurt Buckman whose happy career at a chemical plant for a great boss (Donald Sutherland) goes south when the boss' son Bobby (Colin Farrell) takes over and wants to run the business into the ground with all the employees in it. The three friends, realizing that they can't just quit due to the recession, their pasts or their skill set, set out to hire a hit man to off their respective bosses. Enter Dean "M.F." Jones (Jamie Foxx) who will not kill the bosses for the trio, but who will provide "murder consultant services" for them so they can do the wet works themselves.

Bateman brings his Arrested Development defeatist angst to the gig. Sudeikis travels straight from Hall Pass with the same kookiness and disregard for the boundaries between the sexes. Charlie Day is equal parts brilliance and stupidity in his role. Spacey is a boss that I would be afraid of crossing. Aniston as a comical sexual predator (is there such a thing?) is gorgeous and devious, with piercing eyes and a rockin' body. And Colin Farrell, with his hair combed over his bald spot and his coked-up disregard for his fellow man (or pregnant woman), steals every scene he enters - similar to Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder.

Horrible Bosses is funny, although many of the best bits are in the commercials and trailers. Farrell, Day and Foxx provide the best laughs not previously seen. The situations the boys get themselves in are comedy all by themselves. Imagine the boys' surprise upon meeting a Wet Works specialist (Ioan Gruffudd) who supposedly will carry out the job for all three people for $200, or the amateur surveillance Nick, Kurt and Dale attempt in their bosses homes.

Not as memorable as The Hangover or Wedding Crashers as the ads may want you to believe, Horrible Bosses manages to capture the feelings that many have in their workplaces, but can not rate against all-time workplace struggle films like Office Space or 9 to 5. Even so, Horrible Bosses has enough in its story and characters to get a few laughs out of you if you ever get a day off.

WORTH: Matinee or Netflix

Paul

A Cute Encounter Of The Third Kind

Director: Greg Mottola

Writer: Nick Frost, Simon Pegg

Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jason Bateman, Bill Hader, John Carroll Lynch

RANT: Movie-going with my housemate. Always a roll of the dice if she is going to like the movies she says she wants to go to. I was lucky this time, although she is not the reviewer here. Another interesting development... I purchased a soda and, halfway through the movie, my housemate stuck her hand in the cup to get some ice. Instead of ice, she pulled out the nozzle from the soda fountain. What a crazy day!

SYNOPSIS: Two Londoners make a trip of a lifetime, starting with the San Diego Com-Con and planning a trip to tourist alien hot spots across the American West. Their plans go out the window when they "encounter" a true alien, Paul.

Director Greg Mottola strays from raunchy and stoic comedy to beam in on an action/comedy/adventure/buddy/road-trip flick starring a wide-eyed extra-terrestrial named Paul. Gathering all of his acting pals from Arrested Development (Jason Bateman), Adventureland (Kristin Wiig, Bill Hader), the writers of Paul (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost) and Superbad (Seth Rogen).

Following Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost) on their American holiday from their starting point at the San Diego Comic Com with plans to visit alien hot spots across the west, they unwittingly have a close encounter with Paul, an alien on the run from the government after working with them for 60 years. When Paul pleads for help, Graeme and Clive roll the dice and strike out on an adventure they never expected. In their travels, they find the government, hill-billies and a bible-thumping shotgun-toting father all chasing after them and their RV.

Seth Rogen, voicing Paul, uses his distinct frat boy, man-child with a heart of gold style to perfection. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost look like they had come directly from Shaun of the Dead (minus Nick being a video game playing zombie), still best of friends. Kristin Wiig brings her kooky, sometimes distracting, characters from SNL and rolled them into Bible devotee Ruth Buggs.

Paul is a quick-paced road trip, complete with car chases, big guns and bigger government-issued sun glasses. Not only does Mottola take us into the Comic Com, he pays homage to a slew of comic, sci-fi and pop culture films throughout Graeme and Clive's adventures. Paul is a high-flying saucer ride - witty, funny and tender. Just be advised, Paul seems like it was made for kids, but it is rated-R for a foul-mouthed reason.

Worth: Matinee or DVD

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