New movies this week
Identity Thief
The gist: A woman using the name of a man from the other side of the country lives it up in Miami, buying whatever she wants and ruining his credit. You know, a hilarious, that-could-never-happen caper! R
The cast: Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, Genesis Rodriguez, John Cho, Jon Favreau and Amanda Peet.
The buzz: It's about as hilarious as the premise sounds, especially to anyone who has ever had a credit-card number stolen or a bank account phished. "It's a deserving subject that should be explored in a more viable film, but Identity Thief is so bad it's hard to believe it wasn't directed by Judd Apatow or the Farrelly Brothers," the New York Observer notes.
Side Effects
The gist: Steven Soderbergh makes perhaps his final thriller about a woman prescribed an anti-anxiety medication that may or may not have made her even crazier. Sponsored by Zoloft, which the movie is sure to say doesn't make you feel that way. R
The cast: Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mamie Gummer, Vinessa Shaw and David Costabile.
The buzz: If it really is Soderbergh's last movie, it's a good one. "Steven Soderbergh's elegantly coiled puzzler spins a tale of clinical depression and psychiatric malpractice into an absorbing, cunningly unpredictable entertainment," Variety praises.
— Joshua Gillin jgillin@tampabay.com
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