Melissa McCarthy Throat Punches Jason Bateman In First Trailer For Identity Thief

Melissa McCarthy in Identity Thief
(Image credit: Universal)

Yesterday we brought you the first two character posters for the upcoming movie Identity Thief, starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, and in my write-up I noted that when posters show up online it tends to mean that a trailer isn't too far away. Well, approximately 24 hours have passed and it looks like I was right: the first trailer for the new Seth Gordon-directed comedy is now online.

Check out the preview below, which comes to us courtesy of Yahoo!

I must say that I really enjoyed this comedy. While the film's February release date had me wondering just how good the film could possibly be, I laughed quite a bit watching this trailer, and not just at McCarthy punching Bateman in the throat twice. I thought Gordon's movie from last summer, Horrible Bosses, was a nice surprise and this looks like it could be a really solid follow-up.

Based on a script by Craig Mazin (The Hangover Part II), the story follows an ordinary mild-mannered guy named Sandy (Bateman) whose life starts to crumble when he discovers that his identity has been stolen. Tracking the criminal down, he discovers that the culprit is a trainwreck of a woman named Diana (McCarthy) and he fights to bring her to justice. The impressive supporting cast includes Amanda Peet, John Cho, Jon Favreau, Genesis Rodriguez, Eric Stonestreet, Robert Patrick, Ben Falcone and Clark Duke. Identity Thief will be in theaters on February 8, 2013 and you can read more about it in our Blend Film Database.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.