The Surprise Hit Crime Comedy Climbing The Netflix Charts
It’s not outside the realm of possibilities for critical flops to reemerge as absolute hits decades after they dropped a bomb at the box office. This week has several contenders for the most successful flop, including Beverly Hills Cope: Axel F—not a flop, but a money-grab—Warcraft, and Identity Thief. The latter, despite being panned by critics at release, is currently on Netflix’s most-viewed English language films list.
Jason Bateman And Melissa McCarthy In Identity Thief
Identity Thief is a 2013 American road comedy movie starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, telling the story of a man, Sandy Patterson, whose identity has been stolen by a female con artist. Not wanting to wait for authorities to resolve the issue and find the perp, which might take years, Sandy decides to take matters into his own hands and embarks on a cross-country road trip to find the culprit and clear his name. What ensues is complete hilarity, as Sandy now plans to take the identity thief—portrayed by McCarthy—to authorities.
A Road Trip Gone Wrong
Of course, as in most Hollywood films, the two bond and form a friendship while going through a myriad of misadventures on their way from Denver back to Florida. Considering the cast, which includes the comedic legend Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman, the movie was supposed to be a massive critical success. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
Though we initially branded the movie as a total failure, Identity Thief was anything but, considering that it actually made $175.4 million on a modest $35 million budget—making it a resounding commercial success.
Critics Absolutely Hated It
However, Identity Thief failed to impress the critics, who despised the movie, calling it mean-spirited, offensive, and putrid, with one critic even going as far as to urge the audience to save two hours of their time by skipping the movie entirely. The Rotten Tomatoes score of 19 percent really reflects the critics’ sentiment towards the movie, and the audience’s score, while higher, still signals that the hit movie shouldn’t exist following its release. But, as with many other releases, it found new life on Netflix, with more than 7.3 million hours watched.
Not Bateman And McCarthy’s Finest Hour
What makes this movie interesting is the fact that Jason Bateman, who was cast first, insisted that the role of the thief be given to Melissa McCarthy after he had seen her performance in Bridesmaids. The studio even had him go and cast Melissa himself, which he did. The end result, however, wasn’t all that great, and Identity Thief had it rough in its post-release period, with every critic not saving their ammo and guns pointed at the movie. With that said, the two did redeem themselves with some notable appearances in other releases.
Identity Thief Finds A New Audience On Netflix
Namely, following the flopping of Identity Thief, McCarthy starred in St. Vincent and Spy, both of which were actually lauded by the critics. The same applies to Jason Bateman, who appeared in The Gift and Zootopia, both of which earned really high marks from both critics and audiences. Those interested in seeing Identity Thief can stream the movie on Netflix.
