A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

THE BETTER SOOKIE: Identity Thief is not a terribly good movie--it has at least one set of villains too many, a lengthy bit involving Eric Stonestreet (who, to his credit, evokes Cam from Modern Family not at all) that isn't funny, and a pretty awful CGI snake.  Despite that (and the winter storm in the Northeast this weekend), it opened to more than $30 million dollars this weekend, and that's being largely credited to Melissa McCarthy, and rightly so.  To the extent the movie works, it's because McCarthy throws herself into it--not just the broad physical stuff that has (unsurprisingly) been the focus of the ads, but also some genuine emotion, even within that physical comedy, just as she did in Bridesmaids.  I'm hoping this means we see more and better stuff built around her talents rather than her turning into the female Adam Sandler, turning out movie after movie built around the same template.