Flashback Review: Big Fat Liar

Salutations fellow movie goers from around the world. Today’s “Flashback Review” involves one of my favorite comedies since childhood known as, “Big Fat Liar.”

Released in 2002. (same year The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers came out) The film was a box office success, unfortunately, it received mixed reviews from critics. Really? this isn’t on the same level as Baby Geniuses!

The Premise is about a fourteen year-old kid named Jason, (played by Frankie Muniz, who was a household name for starring in “Malcolm In The Middle”) who discovers a Hollywood Producer named Marty Wolf, (played by Oscar nominee, Paul Giamatti) stole his paperwork by turning it into a motion picture without giving him credit. He enlists his friend Kaylee, (played by Amanda Bynes before she went cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs) to sabotage Wolf for stealing his original work.

The reason why I wanted to share this to my fellow movie goers, is because Shawn Levy, who directed the picture, is currently working as a producer on one of my favorite TV shows, “Stranger Things” alongside showrunners, The Duffer Brothers. I just wanted to spread the word of mouth to anybody who are fans of the show and to prepare for October 27, which is the release date for Season 2.

The following blog is a NON-SPOILER review. You’re free to read all about it for those who have never seen Big Fat Liar. Does this movie remain as one of my favorite comedies since childhood? Let’s see!

Positive & Negative Elements

Positive: Frankie Muniz and Amanda Byrnes did a good job on their performances as the two main leads.

There’s no forced shove it in your face romance between Muniz & Bynes characters. They treat each other like brother and sister in a subtle way. I dislike forced love stories.

Paul Giamatti’s role as Marty Wolf, did a laugh out loud, hands down performance. In my opinion, he stole the show. Wolf is one of the best cinematic villains of all time. He’s someone you dispise that makes you want to punch him in the fake looking Hollywood Teeth, but you can’t hate him too much at the same time.

Satirical depiction of Hollywood, mostly focusing on Marty Wolf, the best way to describe him is in fact, a PG rated version of Les Grossman, (Tom Cruise’s character Tropic Thunder) minus the excessive amount of “F Bombs.”

Wolf’s last name is a tribute to “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” That’s a meaningful name for a pathological liar.

The Best Line in my opinion is “I will never ever ever ever infinity tell the truth!”

Lee Majors, (Six Million Dollar Man) Jon Chow, (Sulu from the rebooted Star Trek series) Sandra Oh, (Giamatti’s future co-star in Sideways) & Jaleel White, (Urkel from Family Matters) make prominent appearances.

Dusty Diamond, (Screech from Saved By The Bell) Kenan Thompson, (future SNL cast member) and Shawn Levy, have cameo appearances.

If you’re a movie buff, the duo find a “safe house” filled with movie memorabilia located at Universal Studios. The same studio that distributed Big Fat Liar. You’ll be very familiar with the costumes/props.

One moment from the film has the best usage of the phrase, “Oh My God!” This needs to be used as an example to teach students in Acting Classes. I’m doubling the points if they make this happen!

Without giving too much away, if you remember the marketing for the film, a trailer or two shows Wolf all covered in blue. Is it possible that James Cameron got inspired to create the blue people from Avatar, or James Gunn to use Wolf’s bleached appearance as a visual reference to Yondu from Guardians Of The Galaxy? You hear that filmmakers, you probably watched the film with your kids or nephews/nieces.

A Chase Sequence pays tribute to the chase scene from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

Similar to Liar Liar, The Moral of the story is if you keep lying to everybody you know, karma will eventually bite you in the butt.

Negative: I don’t wanna sound like a biased jerk, the film plays the Survivor song “Eye Of The Tiger.” The big reason why I dislike it, is because the song has been used way too many times. Every time I go see a movie or watch something on TV, it appears like a merry-go-round that will never stop. I have no choice but to double down a few points.

The Final Verdict: A-

If you haven’t seen this film, I highly recommend it for the entire family. Trust me, you are gonna laugh your butt off! What the heck is wrong with other critics? Seriously! That was a funny as heck movie!

This is the only time I like something Dan Schneider related. His television shows are terrible, except for All That and Keenan & Kel.