Courtesy of www.impawards.com

Seth Gordon makes yet another appalling comedy with his latest film “Identity Thief.”

It took 40 minutes for the plot to be explained so that you care about what is happening to Jason Bateman’s character, Sandy.

His character, who has had his identity stolen by Melissa McCarthy’s character, Diana, is not developed.

The sarcastic Sandy has to travel across the country and capture Diana in order to clear his name.

He does not have much of a character arc. Any change his character does have has to be summed up for you at the end.

At this point in the movie a curveball is thrown at you by saying Sandy’s character is not assertive. This does not make any sense since he roams across the United States to capture and bring back a criminal stranger.

It was nice to see a leading lady who does not look like a runway model, and McCarthy gives an enjoyable performance in her first blockbuster leading role.

Half of the funniest parts come when she is on screen. While her character does have an arc, it’s obvious, you will know what is going to happen.

A few of the jokes are those staples of lazily written comedy movies, such as the legendary semi-truck that smashes into the character’s car without warning and drives off without stopping.

This film had the same feel as Gordon’s other comedies, “Four Christmases” and “Horrible Bosses.”

Overall the acting was not dreadful. It is the dialogue that needed work and the development of the plot. The music set the mood, and the wardrobe captured the essence of the characters.

If you are still itching to see this movie, wait for it to come out on Redbox; you’ll save some money.

“Identity Thief” gets 2 stars out of five.