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
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
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