Well, if you had to give an impression of the new movie "Identity Thief" starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, you would have to say "Mistaken Identity". I walked into this movie thinking it was a comedy but it became a different type as it progressed. I don’t think it really knew what it was and that was a problem.

McCarthy plays Diana, a person who likes to assume the identity of individuals to spend their money at her leisure, meanwhile her latest find is Sandy, played by Jason Bateman, who is a wonderful father husband and hard worker. When Sandy starts to have some problems with his credit cards and other stuff, he soon realizes that his identity has been well compromised. This starts a chain reaction of events as Bateman decides to clear his good name, because the police and others won’t help, by going after this culprit on his own. What happens next is some wild but long situations including lots of slaps, rudeness and chasing.

The movie starts to lose its plan by trying to be a comedy, drama and chase movie all wrapped into a bow. It wants us to feel for McCarthy’s character and why she is in the situation she’s in as well as feel for Batemans character and how screwed his life has become. I wanted to feel for them but there was too much other junk in between, including a storyline about McCarthy being chased by some hit men for giving out bad credit cards or something like that.

I was totally disinterested in that plotline and to be honest with you, it really didn’t even need to be in the movie, big mistake there.

I really like Melissa McCarthy and she really tries to save the movie with her comedic performance but unfortunately it’s not enough. In fact, if it wasn’t for her, there wouldn’t have been many laughs for me at all. Meanwhile Jason Bateman, tries to help the movie but his character is well boring and doesn’t really add life to the movie either and the other characters you don’t have any connection to as well. If it was a comedy, like I thought it was being sold as, then it did not work. If it was a drama, it did not work. If it was a chase movie, it did not work. Except for another wonderful performance by McCarthy.

"Identity Thief" (Rated R) was a movie with a lost identity from the beginning with me. Save your time and wait for this one in the rental kiosk.