Review of Big Fat Liar (2002) by Christian S — 21 Dec 2013

As a small child, there was a movie I remember enjoying. Many movies in fact. But I just got done revisiting one, and I felt like talking about it. And it's always weird seeing movies you saw as a child.

What was once images and sounds are now a story. Okay, I wasn't that young when I saw it, but it was a point where I didn't fully get things. But I recently saw it again, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Other people don't like this movie a lot, so maybe it's nostalgia. But it's a family movie, it's aged, it has problems. I don't know what the hell Frankie Muniz is doing, Paul Giamatti (who's still probably in my top ten actors list) is going to be in the new Spiderman movie, and Amanda Bynes has become one of those celebrities that's held onto being famous by being a retard on Twitter.

Ah, reality. Anyway, to get the acting out of the way, I thought it was good. Paul Giamatti looks like he's having fun, and plays a family movie dickhead better than a lot of other people could. Amanda Bynes plays female friend well enough, and Frankie Muniz is actually pretty good.

Side characters really are pushing that cheesy level a lot, and that's bad enough with how already cheesy it is. But maybe a quick synopsis could help. Frankie Muniz is a liar (unfortunately he is neither fat, nor big, which would have been hilarious) But he ditches out on his final paper of writing a story to play video games or some shit.

(He's lazy basically) And so he made a big lie, then it blew up in his face, and now he's in summer school, and worse his father lost trust in him. Now he has to rewrite the paper. And apparently he's such a good liar, he's a good storyteller, and so he writes some great story.

But along the way to school he slams into the limo of Hollywood producer Marty Wolf. And basically he accidentally gets the script, and decides to keep it for a movie while Muniz looks even more lazy.

So now Frankie Muniz must go across the country with Amanda Bynes Home Alone style, but he has to prove he's not lying. Thankfully he's clever and sarcastic enough to ruin Giamatti's career, and do all these other things that are unrealistic but could sort of happen in a Home Alone way.

But this is one of the movies that I think I liked the first half a lot better than the second. Maybe it was because as a child I watched the first half a lot more than the second. That and I liked him riding his skateboard and being a suburban kid, and the Hollywood thing was kind of the exact opposite.

But that one area they lived in, that pretty cool. Plus the old music, it felt early 2000s again, if not late nineties. Also, I thought this movie was catering to all ages. There were really childish kid parts, and if I watched in the theater I could just feel the cheese coming out of it.

Then the main characters are pre-teen, and usually the main characters ages are who relates to the movie the most. And then their were movie references and Hollywood jokes I think only adults could really grasp.

But if I could say who it was catering to the most, probably the Nickelodeon audience. But it is still enjoyable for adults... or for teenagers who watched it a lot as a kid like myself! But it's a harmless movie, and it has its own uniqueness in areas.

It's good for others, great for me for nostalgia only. That and I thought it was clever enough at parts.