Identity Thief 2013

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: This often very mean-spirited movie about modern rage plays out with nods to several road-trip classics. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: As is the case with other unsatisfactory diversions, it is entirely possible to ignore the worst parts of this movie, to drift along during the lulls, slide over the half-baked jokes and just wait for Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Bateman to do their things. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It's a deserving subject that should be explored in a more viable film, but Identity Thief is so bad it's hard to believe it wasn't directed by Judd Apatow or the Farrelly Brothers. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The comedy equivalent of mud-wrestling without the mud. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: "Identity Thief" is mostly noteworthy for reminding us that McCarthy's talents can, indeed, carry a comedy. It's too bad that it had to be this one. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: A comedy doesn't necessarily need to develop its characters past caricatures, but a better balance between narrative and yuks tends to make the yuks stronger. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: The film's few chuckles can be chalked up to the sheer comedic charisma of McCarthy and Bateman. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: ''Identity Thief'' strands these two ordinarily enjoyable comics in the middle of nowhere with no help for miles. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Unfunny, predictable, and vulgar, it's the generic equivalent of a Judd Apatow movie. As always, you get what you pay for. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [Identity Thief] exhausts most of the comic potential from identity theft in the first 20 minutes and then turns into a solid but unexceptional road picture. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Gordon is lost, and his style of shooting - telescopic close-ups, which never give us enough space to appreciate the performers - feels wrong for comedy. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: Even with all its shortcomings and sentimental fudges, there is something about McCarthy's refusal to lie down and play the victim that gives it a comic edge. A blunt edge, to be sure, but an edge all the same. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Bateman and McCarthy are left stranded onscreen while we are supposed to be chortling at slobber comedy and fat jokes. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Of the many qualities I adore about Melissa McCarthy as a comedian and as a dramatic actor, the best is how fully she gives herself to every character she plays. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: You don't care enough about these people to want to see them come out on top. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Another rough comic movie road trip helps give car travel a bad name. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Its stars, Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, steal so many laughs from such improbable places that the bumps in this revenge/road trip farce can be mostly forgiven, though not forgotten. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Identity Thief apparently forgets it was supposed to be a comedy. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The darkness in this comedy is exactly what makes it work so well. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The whole thing's not much of anything, really - just a little more than an hour-and-a-half of crude jokes and clumsy plotting, all wrapped up with a feel-good ribbon at the end. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: Electronic identity theft offers a host of new possibilities, and to have almost none of them explored by writer Craig Mazin and director Seth Gordon in this uninspired trudge of a road movie is the biggest waste of all. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: What success the movie finds is due to the leads' efforts, which are impressively strenuous. They start out with a great premise, and they're clearly ready to run with it. But most of the laughs are stolen right out from under them. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: We can forgive the silly setup, without which there can be no film, but like many a road movie, this one has a better start and finish than middle. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: If nothing else, Identity Thief confirms McCarthy's identity in the Hollywood hierarchy: She's a big, ballsy star. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A lot of movies released into theaters deserve the label of "bad." Only a few cross the line into "reprehensible." Say hello to Identity Thief. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: "Identity Thief" is a cheap copy of much better comedies. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: 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. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Considering that it starts out with two distinctive and likable stars and a reasonably promising premise, "Identity Thief" reaches impressive heights of laziness and idiocy. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Identity Thief" is not only not funny. It's negative funny. It's short on laughs, but it will disturb and annoy. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Thanks to McCarthy's abundant comic gifts and those of her equally ill-served straight man Jason Bateman, Identity Thief doesn't leave nearly as icky a taste as it could have, but Gordon only taps into a fraction of his actors' potential. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: At best it's perversely interesting as a major misstep for both stars. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: If "Identity Thief" isn't the most outrageous social satire since "Myra Breckenridge," then my name isn't Rex Reed. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Really, this a two-hander that unfolds at two distinctly separate speeds. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: [A] sloppily made exercise of rip-offs and redemption. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Has the kind of cast that makes audiences ask, "How bad could it be?" before proceeding to answer that very question. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: It saddles Bateman with a thankless uptight straight-man role while heaping serial slapstick ignominies on his co-star, who gamely bounds through everything the script throws at her. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: 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. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: [It] manages to make off with just enough laughs to work, thanks to the wondrous McCarthy, one of the few actresses in Hollywood allowed to showcase her wit and charisma as much as her physique. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: With Identity Thief, Melissa McCarthy proves she's got what it takes to carry a feature, however meager the underlying material. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: McCarthy gets bashed about like a Stooge, and she bashes back with riotous abandon. Sadly, the rest of the movie is a shambles. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: Identity Thief is funny enough, but it needed to be darker, raunchier, and crazier to live up to the promise of its casting. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: What a bummer. Read more