Identity Thief
Universal Pictures | Release Date: February 8, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
19
Negative:
15
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundFeb 6, 2013
Melissa McCarthy is riveting in simply-penned moments of remorse and confession, adding tearful depth to her ace timing and formidable physical comedy. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumFeb 6, 2013
The fault, I think, isn't in our stars but in the script, running up a huge comedy tab the likable players can't pay off. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 7, 2013
Funny and promising as the first act is, the entire second act is pretty awful, as the script chucks in one tiresome, unlikely gag after another. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenFeb 7, 2013
McCarthy delivers the moment of pathos in a totally different voice, tears staining her puffy face, as feelings awfully real and tainted in tragedy bubble up from deep within the comic persona. It’s startling, it’s wholly incongruous, yet it’s undeniably moving. God, how this woman can act and, within the brief frames of that different film, how we long to see the rest of it. Read full review
63
USA TodayScott BowlesFeb 7, 2013
Preposterous, goofy and a clear ripoff of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” Identity still manages to make off with just enough laughs to work, thanks to the wondrous McCarthy, one of the few actresses in Hollywood allowed to showcase her wit and charisma as much as her physique. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaFeb 7, 2013
In some ways, Identity Thief is a raunchier variation on another recent odd-couple road pic: Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen as overbearing mom and nebbish son in "The Guilt Trip." Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanFeb 7, 2013
The dialogue in Craig Mazin’s script crackles at its best, and the supporting characters (led by Robert Patrick as a grizzled skip chaser) have bizarrely funny moments. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyFeb 7, 2013
The heart of this film is on the road with Bateman and McCarthy. If not for their brilliance, Identity Thief would be running on empty. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 7, 2013
As is the case with other unsatisfactory diversions, it is entirely possible to ignore the worst parts of this movie, to drift along during the lulls, slide over the half-baked jokes and just wait for Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Bateman to do their things. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 7, 2013
Identity Thief is a road movie with its creative lanes clogged, and a Mack truck comedian barreling through, anyway. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonFeb 6, 2013
Identity Thief establishes its priorities: Expansive character business is front and center; actual character-building is in the margins, almost off the map. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 8, 2013
Identity Thief is funny enough, but it needed to be darker, raunchier, and crazier to live up to the promise of its casting. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreFeb 7, 2013
While the filmmakers might have shot for "Midnight Run," but settled for "Due Date," they wound up only achieving "Guilt Trip." Identity Thief is sputtering long before that mid-movie moment when it turns all sentimental and goes off the rails. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 6, 2013
It wants to be "Midnight Run" meets "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," but it carries little of the dramatic heft and real-world semi-plausibility of those much superior efforts. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 6, 2013
With Melissa McCarthy playing a one-woman demolition team who, for 95 percent of the running time, is a genuine affront to nature, there are unavoidably some laughs here, although the gifted comic actor got more of them in less screen time in her previous films than she does in this starring role. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 6, 2013
With Identity Thief, Melissa McCarthy proves she's got what it takes to carry a feature, however meager the underlying material. Read full review
45
NPRBob MondelloFeb 8, 2013
Such a catalog of missed opportunities, it probably makes sense just to list them. Read full review
42
Film.comStephanie ZacharekFeb 26, 2013
Watching Identity Thief will steal nearly two hours of your life that you’ll never get back. It takes far more than it gives. Read full review
40
EmpireJames WhiteMar 18, 2013
Clever premise, witless execution. Read full review
40
Total FilmKen McIntyreMar 11, 2013
Melissa McCarthy’s over-the-top performance as a low-rung grifter enlivens what is otherwise a groan-worthy odd-couple comedy. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 8, 2013
The result is exactly what you would expect from a concept whose odometer has been running for so long: uneven laughs, sparked largely by spurts of shock comedy but marred by a general sense of familiarity. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanFeb 7, 2013
The ensuing road trip should be hilariously chaotic, a classic misadventure between two ill-matched travelers. Instead of “Midnight Run,” though, we get another gloss on the recent “Guilt Trip,” in which the concept is all that counts. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghFeb 7, 2013
Everyone would have been better off if the editors had just cobbled together a 90-minute blooper reel and called it a day. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackFeb 6, 2013
The film is ultimately unsatisfying, not as laugh-out-loud funny as it promises to be in the opening. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan Scherstuhl Feb 5, 2013
McCarthy gets bashed about like a Stooge, and she bashes back with riotous abandon. Sadly, the rest of the movie is a shambles. So, let it be said, this one time only: Here is a comedy that really could use more inter-gender violence. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearFeb 5, 2013
No matter how may times Identity Thief switches tracks, nothing works — it fails as a star vehicle, a recession-era satire, a WTF white-collar-grunt revenge tale, a "Midnight Run"–style buddy flick, a gross-out laughfest and a bathetic tale of broken souls. No amount of stolen guises can fix it. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 7, 2013
Gordon is lost, and his style of shooting - telescopic close-ups, which never give us enough space to appreciate the performers - feels wrong for comedy. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsFeb 7, 2013
Suffering through this felonious farce could only inspire a prison riot. Read full review
30
TimeMary PolsFeb 9, 2013
It’s just a movie, with a dramatic arc that’s supposed to make all that mean stuff drift away into the ether as friendship is born, but it’s that look that hangs around like a bad smell. Read full review
30
SlateDana StevensFeb 9, 2013
It would be easier to forgive Identity Thief its overfamiliar comic setups and shameless gag-recycling if the movie’s second half didn’t make such an abrupt about-face from soliciting our revulsion to begging for our pity. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 8, 2013
This feels a lot like some of the recent, unwatchable Adam Sandler offerings: boorish, unfunny comedy colliding with saccharine, quasi-dramatic filler. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 8, 2013
Unfunny, predictable, and vulgar, it’s the generic equivalent of a Judd Apatow movie. As always, you get what you pay for. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezFeb 8, 2013
An unsalvageable wreck. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 7, 2013
Identity Thief is not only not funny. It's negative funny. It's short on laughs, but it will disturb and annoy. Read full review
25
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 7, 2013
McCarthy’s willingness to go to the mat notwithstanding, it’s viewers who are likely left feeling punched in the gut. Read full review
25
The PlaylistDrew TaylorFeb 7, 2013
With long stretches (we're talking 20-30 minutes) without a single guffaw, Identity Thief is aggressively dull, and will joylessly steal two hours of your life that you will never get back. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellFeb 7, 2013
The deadly dull action-comedy Identity Thief is an infuriating waste of time, on all sides of camera and screen. I did not know I could yawn angrily. This movie somehow proved it possible. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedFeb 6, 2013
Identity Thief is so bad it’s hard to believe it wasn’t directed by Judd Apatow or the Farrelly Brothers. Read full review
0
SalonAndrew O'HehirFeb 9, 2013
Identity Thief reaches impressive heights of laziness and idiocy. Read full review
0
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerFeb 8, 2013
I squirmed in my seat throughout Identity Thief, a colossally unfunny and misguided comedy. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 7, 2013
Watch the trailer, if you must, but spare yourself the full experience: Identity Thief steals time. Read full review
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