By DELANEE BOGAN
Going on a road trip with a convict and one of her victims, director Seth Gordon takes viewers on their journey through Identity Thief. This is a must see movie for anyone who likes a mixture between comedy, action and heart felt moments.
The movie begins when Sandy Patterson’s (Jason Bateman, Arrested Development) identity is stolen by Diana (Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids), who has been living it up in Florida with his credit cards.
Spending the stolen money left and right on anything that catches her eye, Diana has been living her dream life with Sandy Patterson’s credit cards. After being arrested for punching someone in a bar he has never been to, he eventually realizes someone stole his identity, is committing crimes in his name and maxing out his credit cards. After his arrest his boss threatens to fires him but gives him a week to sort everything out. In a desperate attempt to get his job and life back together, he sets off in search of Diana and plans to bring her back to the police.
Finding Diana was easy; Sandy tracked his credit cards. After finding her, he soon finds out he is not the only one who has been searching for her. There are two other groups of people looking for her and they are armed and are willing to do anything to get and kill her. During the action scenes one finds themself on edge of his seat and hoping Diana is okay even though she is the bad guy.
Despite the other guys and the fact that Diana has ruined his life, Sandy finds himself befriending the identity thief he once loathed.
Getting her fame from Bridesmaids, McCarthy is hilarious and can play any role phenomenally. With her being the main character of Identity Thief, the viewer is entertained throughout the entire movie. Whether she is punching someone in the throat or delivering witty side comments, the audience is constantly laughing.
Diana is not the typical thief that someone would expect her to be. It is hard to believe that someone who can be caring and soft hearted could steal someone’s money.
While getting to know Diana on the trip back to Denver, she and Sandy form a unique friendship. He learns more about her and develops a soft spot for her. While fighting the other people seeking Diana, they often save each other’s lives and work together to get back to Denver.
Unfortunately, the movie had a few holes leaving the viewer confused. It never really explained about why the other people were after Diana in the first place. The viewer had to assume the other people were after Diana because she stole money from them.
While watching the movie one might be in disbelief that this could happen in real life. It is very unlikely that someone could find the person who stole their identity and be able to catch them without getting hurt. It is crazy to think someone would willingly go after a convict without help of the police.
The police in the movie were questionable because they weren’t helping Sandy. In the movie the police put his case on hold and were not making any attempt to track Diana down. They told him that the case could be resolved in a year or longer, which was a long time considering he had a week until he lost his job. It makes the viewer think that how the police reacted was not realistic because it is hard to imagine that it would take that long to find a criminal if they her location and information that could lead them to her.
In all, this movie will send the viewer leaving the theater laughing and satisfied with the outcome.
The 411
Title: Identity Thief
Rated: R
Release date: Feb.8
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars