Synopsis: Read on IMDB

Should you watch this movie? Meh! I had high hopes for this one, but it felt short, massively. I wasn’t expecting a lot, well, I was expecting lots of laughter, but I did not experience that. My suggestion is to wait until you can rent it or watch it on TV for free. I do not think it’s worth the movie ticket.

20130407-022909.jpg width=Sandy Patterson is a good person who’s done everything by the book: he is a kind and loving husband, devoted father, and extremely hard worker, although he keeps getting passed for a promotion by some greedy unscrupulous bosses. Then all of a sudden strange stuff starts happening with his credits. His cards get maxed out and charges keep appearing from places he hasn’t even been to. Even the police is on his back for stuff he didn’t do. Turns out he is just a victim of identity theft. He decides to confront the thief to get his life back, who happens to be quite the “spirited” lady, and in the process they get into a bunch of shenanigans that will test the real Sandy’s limits.

The movie stars Jason Bateman as Sandy Bigelow Patterson and Melissa McCarthy as, well, also Sandy Bigelow Patterson. Yeah, you guessed it, she is the identity thief, on account Mr. patterson has a name easily confused with that of a woman (a recurring joke throughout the flick). Both these actors are pretty awesome and are full of comedic magic, but this movie just didn’t have “it”. I saw Melissa McCarthy in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote this movie and she spoke about still getting nervous “about putting this things out there” and thinking that she’s to blame….”but I’ll blame Bateman”. I honestly don’t think neither are to blame. They tried hard, but ultimately the whole thing just crumbled.

Here’s the problem: in the end the story was just too weak and neither McCarthy nor Bateman’s performances were going to be enough to salvage it. The story seemed pretty random, with a bunch of characters popping up trying to add to the story, but not really being a strong support to it. There is too much going on that sometimes it just doesn’t make much sense. There are lots of screwball moments, but that style just doesn’t work with movies trying to send a powerful moral message like this one tried. And another thing I totally hate? What I call the unmemmorable wife role. Amanda Peet plays the wife, a carbon copy of every other comedy movie wife that’s there for star power, but whose role is more like a glorified cameo (Katie Holmes played one in Jack & Jill, Jennifer Aniston did too in Marley & Me, Bruce Almighty, and a bunch of others…). It’s such a waste of talent!

Bottom line: I love Melissa McCarthy, I love Jason Bateman, I love what they do together, just didn’t love the movie at all.

Paola’s mood after watching this movie:

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