BEFORE: Have you spotted this week's unintended secondary theme? From actors + directors to fugitive stuntmen and undercover cops - someone's always pretending to be somebody else. So, logically that leads me to "Identity Thief", and Melissa McCarthy carries over from "The Heat". I'm betting you saw that one coming...
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Due Date" (Movie #1,199)
AFTER: Ah, once again it's time for a summer road trip. I did this chain back in 2012 with road movies, like "Get Him to the Greek", "Due Date", and "Paul", which all seemed somewhat similar. This sort of feels right in line with those, especially the pairing of the two opposite personalities that need to work together, which has been another running theme this week.
Tonight it's a straight-laced accountant type paired up with a brash criminal - so there's shades of "Midnight Run" thrown in there as well - and the road genre has really taken off during the last few years, especially if you consider "The Hangover" to be on topic.
So this is the third film I've seen with Melissa McCarthy, and I think I've figured out my problem with her. And it's not what you think, her size - good on you, girl, you're large and in charge and there's no need to apologize for that. Funny comes in all shapes and sizes, and I myself maintain a consistent panda-bear shape. In fact, if you're trying to do comedy, since fat people are stereotypically jolly, I think it gives you a definite advantage - Ralphie May, Gabriel Iglesias, John Pinette (RIP), Louie Anderson, and going back to the classics, Lou Costello, Oliver Hardy, W.C. Fields, and of course Fatty Arbuckle. It's a new twist for female comedians, so McCarthy and Rebel Wilson seem to have a lock on things for now -
No, this is my problem with Melissa McCarthy - I think she's trying too hard. I don't know what obstacles she's had to overcome to get where she is, and I haven't walked a mile in her shoes (I'm betting she hasn't either...) but judging her acting/emoting level, I get the feeling that she's over-compensating for her appearance issues. In both "Bridesmaids" and "The Heat", her intensity level was really high, and I don't think it needed to be. Again, if you're a large person, I think you're already halfway to being funny, so being loud and obnoxious on top of that is not really necessary for comedy. I'd like to see her more acting subdued - more like John Candy than Chris Farley.
In "Identity Thief", I think she showed signs of moving in that direction. And her character ended up being a lot more consistent, even though it's something of a more "unlikeable" character, being a liar and cheat and a thief. Plus it was still possible to be large and unapologetic for it, while at the same time addressing the limitations of being a larger person, like having trouble running. As opposed to, say, playing a cop who had zero chance of running down perps or chasing them over walls and fences.
As one might expect from an odd-couple pairing/buddy road trip, the two polar characters end up learning from each other - the honest one learns that maybe things aren't so black and white, and maybe there's a time to break the law (when faced with injustice) and the criminal learns (eventually) that her actions have consequences, and her crimes are not victimless. I can't tell you exactly what the cop and the FBI agent seen in "The Heat" learned from each other, because the characterizations were so nebulous and inconsistent.
Unfortunately, the conflict here seems quite forced - not the conflict between the identity thief and her victim, but the one between the two of them and the more unsavory characters like the bounty hunter and the...umm, the other two. I wasn't really sure who the other two criminals were, or what their exact connection was to identity theft. They apparently were upset over getting some bad phony credit cards (as opposed to, what, good phony ones?) and it seems like a pretty big leap from getting some faulty cards to going after someone with a shotgun, but then again, I can't be sure, that's not my world.
Also starring Jason Bateman (last seen in "Horrible Bosses"), Amanda Peet (last seen in "Melinda and Melinda"), Jon Favreau (last seen in "Iron Man 3"), John Cho (last seen in "Star Trek: Into Darkness"), Eric Stonestreet (last seen in "Bad Teacher"), Robert Patrick (last seen in "Gangster Squad"), T.I., Genesis Rodriguez, Jonathan Banks (last seen in "Frances"), Morris Chestnut, with cameos from Ellie Kemper (last seen in "21 Jump Street"), Clark Duke, Ben Falcone (also carrying over from "The Heat").
RATING: 5 out of 10 credit cards
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