Identity Thief

When a Denver businessman's (Jason Bateman) life and credit rating are destroyed by a Florida scam artist (Melissa McCarthy), he travels 2,000 miles to persuade her to come back to Colorado and clear his name. How he buys a plane ticket or rents a car with no credit is never explained in Craig Mazin and Jerry Eeten's imbecilic script; it's just a contrivance so hilarity can supposedly ensue, but it never does. The movie is frustrating, nerve-wracking and infuriating, with a touchy-feely ending as insulting as it is false, but it's never funny. Not once. Amanda Peet, John Cho, Jon Favreau, Robert Patrick and Morris Chestnut are all wasted in a two-person show. Bateman has the name and stature to survive this fiasco, but McCarthy had better watch herself: She's awfully close to wearing out her welcome.