IDENTITY THIEF: That’s a Terrible F*cking Name

Identity Thief (2013) – Directed by Seth Gordon – Starring Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, Robert Patrick, John Cho, Jon Favreau, Amanda Peet, Genesis Rodríguez, T.I., Morris Chestnut, Eric Stonestreet, and Maggie Elizabeth Jones.

It was an afternoon of pleasant surprises: the weather was nicer than I thought it would be, IDENTITY THIEF is funnier than I thought it would be, and when I turned my iPhone back on after the movie, all of my contacts were mysteriously erased.

Okay, so that last one isn’t a pleasant surprise, but I was able to take Darwin for a long walk this morning before the movie and I was constantly amused by IDENTITY THIEF throughout the film. The film contains a handful of laugh out loud moments and if you like Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy (as I do), then there’s no reason you won’t like IDENTITY THIEF.

Directed by Seth Gordon (who directed the excellent documentary The King of Kong and the very funny Horrible Bosses), THIEF is a standard anti-buddy road comedy. Diana (McCarthy) is the titular identity thief, and when she steals the identity of Sandy Bigelow Patterson (Bateman), he takes the law into his own hands and flies from Colorado to Florida in order to bring her back to Denver to put everything right and allow him to keep his new job.

When Patterson gets to Florida he quickly finds Diana, but then criminals Marisol and Julian (Genesis Rodríguez and T.I.) show up for retribution for bad deeds Diana has enacted on them, and a bounty hunter (Robert Patrick) joins the mix, adding a small element of a chase film into the mix.

The focus is on Bateman and McCarthy, though, and the success of the film is thanks to their interaction. Sandy is the do-gooder and Diana is the shady con artist and the film does an excellent job both playing their differences off one another and then showing them growing together. THIEF is running the same ground as a film like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, in that these two characters are definitely not pals at the start of the film but come to truly like one another as the story unfolds. Sandy is a nice guy but he’s not a total schlub who lets the world walk all over him. He’s understandably upset at Diana and doesn’t let her forget it for a good long while.

Critically, it’s Diana who first acts on his behalf. In a very funny sequence where Diana spins a lie at a bar to Big Chuck (Eric Stonestreet) about how Sandy likes to watch her with other men, Sandy ends up locking himself in the bathroom as Diana and Chuck have sex. It’s funny but there’s a really deep undertone to the scene – Diana’s actions are motivated by her own loneliness. We see this at the beginning of the movie when a bartender tells her no one in the bar actually likes her, they just like buying her drinks, and it runs through the movie until Diana comes clean about her origins of being abandoned by her parents and running through multiple foster homes. Here in the hotel room, once Sandy shuts himself in the bathroom, Diana intends to drug Chuck and abscond with Chuck and Sandy’s wallets and valuables. Instead of drugging Chuck, however, she ends up being moved by his story of not having been with anyone since his wife (she initially thinks he’s rejecting her, with gives the scene some gravitas), and decides to have sex with him.

McCarthy does a fantastic job here balancing Diana’s cons with her real emotions and I’m often left momentarily wondering whether we’re seeing the real Diana or the fake Diana. While she’s moved enough to have sex with Chuck, she has not undergone the full conversion, yet, as after he passes out she locks Sandy in the bathroom, takes Chuck and Sandy’s stuff, and leaves. When she hits the car, however, a phone call from Sandy’s family catches her off guard. She looks at the photo of his kids and has a change of heart. She returns to the room just as Sandy breaks the door down, and she tells him she was just out checking on the ice, and then crawls pathetically into bed.

Strawberry Quik in powder form. I drank the hell out of this stuff as a kid, even though I never understood why that pink bunny is wearing a strawberry for a hat.

Now that Diana has earned some sympathy points with the viewers, the film then immediately allows Sandy to have both a jerk and redemption moment. At checkout the next morning, he’s on edge and engages in a really funny exchange with a bored clerk. (“Did you enjoy your stay?” “No.”) A hungover Diana has asked him to get her some Strawberry Quik. Sandy asks the clerk if they have any and she says yes, but he doesn’t buy her any. When he’s getting himself some coffee, however, Robert Patrick kidnaps her and Sandy is quick to run after them. Now, yes, he needs her to get his good name back, but as she rightly points out later, he calls her his friend during his verbal exchange with Patrick, and his actions seem to be partially motivated out of genuine concern.

Sandy ends up crashing Patrick’s van and after he pulls Diana from the wreckage, there’s a small back and forthe between the two of them. I can’t remember exactly what was said, but what I do remember is that it was both quickly the exchange transpired and how none of it was all that important. It was a genuine exchange, though, that felt very conversational and real, and not just a set-up and punch line. I like that – Sandy and Diana are well-rounded characters, and maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but in comedies now I’m much more interested in movies with good characters in a good story that’s amusing than I am in watching a film that is constantly going for the quick hit-and-run jokefest approach.

The ending of IDENTITY THIEF is really something fantastic, and had me leaving the theater feeling up. From the moment Sandy takes Diana to his house and through to Sandy’s family visiting Diana in jail, the film has an almost perfect mix of being funny, touching, and even a little sad. The resolution of Diana going to jail, but Sandy and his family visiting her hit a perfect note, and the funniest line of the movie (the title of this review) comes right at the end.

IDENTITY THIEF isn’t quite as funny as either of Bateman or McCarthy’s best efforts, but it is a really good film. I only went to see it because I was in the mood for some popcorn, but I had a smile on my face from start to finish.

CASA DE MI PADRE: Do You Speak American?

Casa de Mi Padre (2012) – Directed by Matt Piedmont – Starring Will Ferrell, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, Génesis Rodríguez, Pedro Armendáriz, Jr., Nick Offerman, Efren Ramirez, and Adrian Martinez.

CASA DE MI PADRE est un film pris quelque part entre gimmick et de la parodie, et le résultat est un film parvient à être à la fois très bon et plutôt ennuyeux, en même temps.

CASA est une comédie dans le style dit telenovela. Je sais que parce que chaque examen ou débat autour du film dit: «telenovela». Je n’ai jamais vu plus de quelques minutes de toute telenovela particulier, si mon plaisir de la CASA pourrait être entravé (ou aidé, pour autant que je sache) par ce manque de familiarité. Ce que je sais, c’est que CASA est la comédie qui n’a pas rit de très nombreux, mais ne parviennent à être légèrement intéressant. Il a un peu de ce Grindhouse se sentent à lui en ce que le film de fissures à l’occasion ou apparaît pour vous laisser savoir que vous regardez quelque chose avec un budget limité.

Il ya un peu de déconnecter ici entre la performance Ferrell et le reste du film, qui est fait à dessein, mais pas toujours effectivement rendu. Ferrell joue Armando Alvarez, le fils éleveur de Senor Alvarez (Pedro Armendariz, Jr.), qui est fier de sa non-élevage, super réussie, et (comme il s’avère) de trafic de drogue fils Raul (Diego Luna). Raul est rentré chez lui pour annoncer qu’il va se marier à Sonia (Génesis Rodríguez), mais aussi secrètement développer son activité dans le trafic de drogue Onza de (Gael García Bernal) territoire. Armando ne pense pas assez bonne Sonia pour son frère parce qu’elle n’est pas amoureuse de lui, mais il n’aime pas non plus que son frère est un trafiquant de drogue.

Ferrell joue Armando relativement simple, il a quelques bizarreries qui génèrent l’humour, mais beaucoup de rires les viennent de jouer Armando trop dramatique.

Je donne Ferrell et réalisateur Matt Piémont crédit pour se rendre compte que le truc ici – CASA est un film en langue espagnole, y compris une partie Ferrell – ne suffit pas à propulser un film entier, de sorte qu’ils ne mettre un peu d’effort dans de nous donner une histoire. Le problème, c’est qu’il ya il ya quelques morceaux vraiment drôles, absurdes (comme le film de geler le mouvement pour nous dire qu’ils avaient filmé une séquence d’action vraiment super entre une panthère et un coyote, mais ils ne pouvaient pas le montrer à cause des membres d’équipage sont morts), mais certains sur le mélodrame supérieur (qui je pense est le bit de telenovela) et les deux de ceux-ci font CASA un film qui ne permet pas toujours aider tout au long, qui se sent souvent comme ça se combat.

Il ya beaucoup de violence dans le film qui me fait penser qu’ils auraient été mieux de faire un film qui parodie quelque chose comme machette avec caractère littéral Ferrell dans le milieu d’un lot de folie.

Avec tout cela étant dit, cependant, il ya quelque chose d’admirable sur la CASA DE MI PADRE. Je comprends que Ferrell est en place pour essayer quelque chose de nouveau et il ya des moments où l’histoire de la CASA fait vraiment pour une montre d’engagement, surtout quand américaine DEA Agent Parker (Nick Offerman) arrive pour essayer d’obtenir des barons de la drogue mexicains à s’entre-tuer. En fait, les meilleures parties du film sont lorsque le conflit mexicaine / américaine est soit sur l’écran ou en cours de discussion. Armando n’est pas heureux avec des médicaments qui traitent de Raul, mais Raul lui dit qu’il vient de le vendre aux Américains, alors c’est correct. De même, Parker ne pense pas que la justice veut dire quelque chose ici-bas parce que c’est juste Mexicains Mexicains meurtre. Avec Ferrell au milieu du conflit mexicaine / américaine, CASA a du mordant réel pour elle.

Dans le casting est tout solide, en particulier Nick Offerman et Génesis Rodríguez, mais ce n’est film Ferrell tout autant que Talladega Nights ou vedette .

CASA DE MI PADRE vaut certainement la peine d’une montre, mais finalement c’est un film que j’admire de plus pour sa tentative de son exécution.

1. Thank you, Google Translate.
2. Yes. I know. That’s French.
3. Because it’s funnier that way. Ferrell admitted on The Daily Show that he learned his lines, not Spanish, so there wasn’t much improvisation.
3. I really have no idea if Google Translate did a good job or not. I totally blame their programming as much as my own laziness if it doesn’t make sense.
4. Here’s the subtitled version:

CASA DE MI PADRE is a film caught somewhere between gimmick and parody, and the result is a film manages to be both pretty good and rather tedious at the same time.

CASA is a comedy told in telenovela style. I know that because every review or discussion of the film says, “telenovela.” I’ve never watched more than a few minutes of any particular telenovela, so my enjoyment of CASA might be hindered (or helped, for all I know) by this lack of familiarity. What I do know is that CASA is comedy that doesn’t have very many laughs, but does manage to be mildly interesting. It’s got a bit of that Grindhouse feel to it in that the film occasionally cracks or pops to let you know that you’re watching something with a limited budget.

There’s a bit of disconnect here between Ferrell’s performance and the rest of the film, which is purposely done but not always effectively rendered. Ferrell plays Armando Alvarez, the rancher son of Senor Alvarez (Pedro Armendáriz, Jr.), who’s prouder of his non-ranching, super successful, and (as it turns out) drug-dealing son Raul (Diego Luna). Raul has come home to announce he’s getting married to Sonia (Génesis Rodríguez), but also to secretly expand his drug dealing business into Onza’s (Gael García Bernal) territory. Armando doesn’t think Sonia’s good enough for his brother because she’s not in love with him, but he also doesn’t like that his brother is a drug dealer.

Ferrell plays Armando relatively straight; he has some quirks that generate humor but a lot of the laughs come from playing Armando overly dramatic.

I give Ferrell and director Matt Piedmont credit for realizing that the gimmick here – CASA is a Spanish-language film, including Ferrell’s part – isn’t enough to propel an entire movie, so they do put some effort into giving us a story. The problem is that there there’s some really funny, absurd bits (like the film freezing the action to tell us that they had filmed a really great action sequence between a panther and a coyote but they couldn’t show it because crew members died), but then some over the top melodrama (which I guess is the telenovela bit) and the two of these make CASA a movie that doesn’t always help itself along, that often feels like it’s fighting itself.

There’s a lot of violence in the film that makes me think they would have been better off doing a film that parodied something like MACHETE with Ferrell’s literal character in the middle of a lot of craziness.

With all that being said, however, there is something admirable about CASA DE MI PADRE. I appreciate that Ferrell is up for trying something new and there are times when CASA’s story really makes for an engaging watch, especially when American DEA Agent Parker (Nick Offerman) arrives to try and get the Mexican drug lords to kill each other. In fact, the best parts of the film are when the Mexican/American conflict is either on display or being discussed. Armando isn’t happy with Raul dealing drugs, but Raul tells him he’s just selling it to Americans, so it’s okay. Likewise, Parker doesn’t think justice means anything down here because it’s just Mexicans killing Mexicans. With Ferrell in the middle of the Mexican/American conflict, CASA has some real bite to it.

The supporting cast is all solid, especially Nick Offerman and Génesis Rodríguez, but this is Ferrell’s movie every bit as much as Talladega Nights or Anchorman.

CASA DE MI PADRE is certainly worth a watch, but ultimately it’s a film that I admire more for its attempt than its execution.