Netflix A-Z: Identity Thief (2013)

Moving right along, we hit the I selection.  You know, these are pretty slim pickings.  I, Q, X, you know.  My second round is proving to have some holes where I’m waiting for some interesting selections to pop up. I’m taking chances on some pretty funky stuff for some of these letters. I can only hope I’ll find some treasures.  However, there was no doubt that the first round for I would be this choice, Identity Thief.  I’ve been looking at it for a while.  I just hesitate because Melissa McCarthy’s humor doesn’t always work for me.

Let’s stay positive and give this a go! 🙂

Identity  Thief (2013)

Director: Seth Gordon

Cast: Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, John Cho, Jon Favreau, Amanda Peet, T.I., Genesis Rodriguez, Robert Patrick

Mild mannered businessman Sandy Patterson travels from Denver to Florida to confront the deceptively harmless looking woman who has been living it up after stealing Sandy’s identity. – IMDB

I always start reviews on comedy genre movies saying that is fully subjective. The humor I appreciate might work for me and not you and vice versa.  Melissa McCarthy falls into the category of not working so often because she always goes into the absurd stupid humor.  I like absurd. I watched Stephen Chow growing up but I don’t like stupid. So there was a 50/50 chance of this not working.  Even the director himself is a hit and miss on my book.  Seth Gordon did Horrible Bosses which I enjoyed but he also did Four Christmases which I dislike. Now that I’ve kind of cushioned where this movie could be a hit or miss, I would like to say that this was for the most part a miss.

Identity Thief was mostly really hard to get invested into. I’m not saying I didn’t laugh a little because there were some parts that worked and I kind of chuckled here and there.  Then the humor was kind of weird and absurd (in a bad way) and pretty stupid.  Melissa McCarthy does certain troupes that don’t always work and for me, it worked only a little here and there but for the most part, it felt like its been there done that and I just felt a little repulsed by it. Other times, it just felt so boring that I tried to stay focused but went off to flip through other pages as I surfed the Internet and it played in the background. Like that scene below was really ugh…like I turned my head in disgust and just didn’t enjoy it.  I understand how for some it could be funny but it didn’t make me laugh.  It was just kind of cringe-worthy.

Set some uneffective jokes aside, as a road trip movie, which it is because Jason Bateman’s character Sandy has to bring Diana (Melissa McCarthy) home from Florida to Denver within a set time frame, they both do have charisma for the characters they play.  They have certain expected things that happen and their dislike for each other and just fight for survival does lead them to do things that can be classified as adventurous or ridiculous.  While I sympathize for Sandy a little more, its hard to not notice that the story did want us to connect with Diana more because they do try to build a back story for her.  For a moment, it almost did pull me in but at a certain point, not funny just got annoying and it just stopped me from caring about them.  I get the urgency and the hate and whatever relationship they have, but it just didn’t work so well.

The parts in the movie I did like was really the more action comedy parts with the two up there who work for a crime boss or gang or something and they are after Diana for something she owes them. It still has some comedic value to these characters but they added a bit of entertainment that gave a break from Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman and their jokes.  It added some danger and intensity (just a bit).  They had some funny bits along with another “bounty hunter”-esque sort of fellow played by Robert Patrick who was actually more fun to watch than the other ones.

Honestly, I’m out of stuff to say about Identity Thief.  It was okay.  I’m a little indifferent but mostly just bored because its the same old troupes that I expected.  I still think Jason Bateman can be a very funny guy when given the right script.  Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing for Melissa McCarthy but her performance always stands out more because its more explicit and/or absurd.  There are a few laughs here but I’m sure in a few days it’ll completely escape my mind and I won’t remember it anymore.  If I wanted to watch a good road trip movie, I’d rather watch something like Little Miss Sunshine and if I wanted a better comedy, I’d go for a thousand other choices like Horrible Bosses even.

Did you see Identity Thief? What are your thoughts? Do you like comedies with Jason Bateman or Melissa McCarthy?

J is up next! What do you think it is? Hint: Irish drama

TV Binge: From Dusk Till Dawn (Season 1)

Let’s get back to a proper TV binge! I’ve been meaning to watch From Dusk Till Dawn since it was released on Netflix but I can’t remember what made me put it aside for a while.  But then, my life last year was revolved around a lot of procrastination.  You’ll be seeing a lot of catching up on TV this year.

From Dusk Till Dawn is based on the movie written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez.  I haven’t seen that one as it expired from Netflix a few months ago and I never got around to seeing it.  Hopefully I’ll see it one day.  If you have seen it, did you like it?

From Dusk Till Dawn (Season 1)

Creator: Robert Rodriguez

Cast: D.J. Cotrona, Zane Holtz, Wilmer Valderrama, Jesse Garcia, Eiza Gonzalez, Madison Davenport, Brandon Soo Hoo, Robert Patrick

The Gecko Brothers, Seth and Richard are back and they just robbed a bank of $30 million of bearer bonds.  They need to make their way across the border to Mexico where they will meet up with Carlos who will reward them with a chance to El Rey.  However, due to the younger brother, Richard’s visions causing his mental instability, they end up hitting a few snags.  This leads them to have Sheriff department’s office, Freddie Gonzalez to go rogue and be hot on their trail and eventually joining with an ex-pastor, Jacob Fuller and his daughter, Katie and adopted son, Scott who are taking a family trip away as they become their captives.

From Dusk Till Dawn has a ten episode Season 1 run on Netflix.  There are some good and bad things about this one.  Overall, I definitely enjoyed watching it because the concept and the ideas are really creative and I like their take of vampires and mixing in some, what I think is, Mexican gods/goddesses.  Its definitely different and so much more cool than say, the bottom of the barrel and sparkling vampires.  You know, just saying…  Plus, the season is pretty much split into two parts.  The first part is about the Gecko brothers escaping to Mexico and the reveal of everyone’s problems and just building up the stories so we understand the characters better, especially when there’s technically 4 simultaneous stories going on which eventually converge together as we head into the second part which is when things really go bad and its the reveal of the vampires here.

The story itself might be where it falls short a little.  I can’t quite pinpoint what didn’t work so well but I knew that there were moments where I didn’t really care much for what would happen next.  The plot seemed to be a little inconsistent in pace.  At times, it would reel me in and I’d want to know what was going on, probably because certain characters had more meaningful development and connection than others, whereas other times, I just couldn’t wait for the episode to end so that I could close it and watch it again.  The latter occurred more in the first part.  The second part was a lot more intense and fast paced and made this a little more memorable and fun. Except the character of Santanico drove me crazy because this actress overemphasized too much on how she talked.  It got REALLY annoying.

Overall, From Dusk Till Dawn isn’t any time spectacular but it does have a lot of good moments.  There are some characters that I did connect and start liking their development and the whole premise was creative and a refreshing take (because I never saw the original, I guess).  The cast does a fine job with what they have and the second half is a lot stronger than the first part of the series.  Still, I look forward to seeing what From Dusk Till Dawn whips up for the second season, which is supposed to air in late summer of 2015. Consider me slightly excited for it 🙂

Have you seen this series, From Dusk Till Dawn? Did you see the movie in 1996? If you did, how do they compare?