It’s
awesome to see Melissa McCarthy becoming a box-office star. Here are two of her
recent releases I just caught, nicely paired…
“Identity
Theft” mashes neat freak and slob road-trip comedy “Planes, Trains, and
Automobiles” to numbers geek meets vulgar conman “Producers,” and hopes for
gold. We get copper. You can guess the roles McCarthy and co-star Jason Bateman
each go for. Plot: Bateman’s mega-nerd has his identity stolen by a freakish woman
(McCarthy) in Florida, leaving him poor, jailed, and near fired. At the
suggestion of police –- nothing here is plausible –- he goes to extradite the
woman back to Denver. Again, nonsense. So, bat shit crazy thief Diana
(McCarthy) makes our hero’s life hell with boorishness, screaming fits, a
sexual romp with a trucker, and more. Bateman’s Sandy -– yes, we girl’s name jokes -– implodes under the hellfire of crassness until … he comes to appreciate Diana
for who she really is, a victim worth loving. Look, I laughed to hell
many times, especially when McCarthy puts on a shunned wife act, but when the
movie goes for big tears with a syrupy ending, I cringed. The film does not deserve it, nor does the audience. Why can’t Diane just stay crass? Also, the
violent bounty hunters ... why? C+
“The
Heat” pairs her McCarthy against Sandra Bullock, a better foil than Bateman, as
two LEOs out to capture a drug lord in a female-heavy spin on “Lethal Weapon.”
The plot is inconsequential as director Paul Fieg (“Bridesmaids”)
lets the genre staple of mismatched, bickering cops rule the film. McCarthy is a Boston cop with a gift for Riggs-like
man-handling, while Bullock as a tight-wad FBI agent is more Joe Friday in
“Dragnet.” How the women size one another up, bicker, and then get drunk
together is goofy ’80s hilarious, and just when the relationship skates too
close to tears, we get riffs on runaway cats and a gory CPR scene to puke by. McCarthy is more interesting with her cop storing an arsenal in her
refrigerator, sexually using needy men, and making mincemeat of a john (Tony Hale, marvelously dweeby) cheating on his wife. It’s a role and film many women may cheer: A satire
that turns macho man theatrics on their head. To think the
studio was scared of financing this. Twits. Of the men, Tom “Biff”
Wilson knocks off laughs easily as a “42-year-old” police chief. that said, over length hurts. A-
