For some time, it looked as though Melissa McCarthy was on track to follow the likes of Kristen Wiig and Tina Fey, to becoming one of those faultless American comic actresses that can seemingly do no wrong. We fell in love with her in Bridesmaids and she kept us entertained in 'Mike and Molly'. Her next major release, though, Identity Thief, has not gone down well with the critics and looks to be something of a doozy, with its clichéd slapstick and corny ending. We expected more from Melissa McCarthy, but Identity Thief just doesn’t deliver the goods.

Along with co-star Jason Bateman (who plays Every Jason Bateman Role Ever, Again), Melissa manages to get a decent tally of belly laughs out of the audience but it’s not enough to save Identity Thief from being just another bog-standard comedy. Diana (McCarthy) is a techno-savvy identity thief, who doesn’t bank on messing with a victim like Sandy (Bateman), who hunts her down in order to get his identity back and cling on the promotion he’d just got when he was wrongly arrested for credit card fraud.

McCarthy and Bateman get a thumbs up for their individual performances but as Magnola Dhargis writes, for New York Times, “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.” With a disappointing 23% on the Rotten Tomatoes reviews site, it looks as though director Seth Gordon has failed to make another Horrible Bosses and appears to have gone down the road of his 2008 flop, Four Christmasses. Let’s hope McCarthy’s future movie plans can do a U-turn on the damage done to her reputation, here. 

Watch the trailer for 'Identity Thief'

Melissa McCarthy

Melissa McCarthy at the premiere for Identity Thief