ROTF&LMAO

We're in the "between" time in the desert, when one day it'll be 80 and the next barely break 60. Today, we added rain to the dreary mix that arrived overnight, which was reason enough to go to the movies. My movie buddy and I have seen all the serious offerings, including Les Mis, Argo, Lincoln, The Quartet and other titles I cannot remember, so it was time to cut loose and have some fun.

Enter Identity Thief. OMG is it funny!

There is nothing about the movie that hasn't been done before, but it's all thrown together in this rollicking comedy that barely allows the viewer to stop laughing at one ridiculous scene before the next one comes in. Of course, what makes it work is the casting, supported with a hilarious script that had me wondering how on Earth the actors could keep a straight face while delivering the lines. You forget that Melissa McCarthy is a very generously-sized woman as she cavorts and guffaws as if a size-2 sexpot! She tells you that men are attracted to her like bees to honey, which gets a laugh until the men are attracted to her like bees to honey, in which scenario she's the whole hive! There is the "obligatory sex scene" that is totally hilarious, especially when Justin Bateman, whose identity has been stolen, hides from the goings-on in a motel bathroom. Justin Bateman is the perfect foil for Melissa McCarthy: somber, almost rigidly so, but with facial expressions and verbal comebacks that keep the whole train wreck barreling toward the ending. And, it's a good ending.

Honest to Pete, I laughed myself silly after finding it impossible to stifle my glee. It's not art; it's not great theatre; but it sure is just the thing to brighten a gloomy, rainy day in the desert.