Taglines: Big Fat Liar is an extremely funny comedy, filed whit nonstop action and hilarious pranks.
A take on the classic tale ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, this is the story of a 14-year-old boy named Jason Shephard who lies for the fun of it. He loses an important story assignment entitled ‘Big Fat Liar’ in movie producer Marty Wolf’s limo, which Wolf then turns into a film. When Jason sees a movie preview of his story, he and his best friend Kaylee go to Los Angeles to make Wolf confess to using his story, to clear his name, and to get him out of having to attend summer school. The teen liar then has to match wits with Wolf, who also turns out to be a big liar.
Big Fat Liar is a 2002 American teen comedy film, directed by Shawn Levy, written by Dan Schneider and Brian Robbins, and starring Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti and Amanda Bynes, with Amanda Detmer, Donald Faison and Lee Majors. The film tells a story about a 14-year-old pathological liar, Jason Shepherd (Muniz), whose creative writing assignment is stolen by an arrogant Hollywood producer, Marty Wolf (Giamatti), who later plans to use it to make the fictional film of the same name. It was released in the United States on February 8, 2002.
About the Story
Jason Shepherd is a 14-year-old chronic liar who is constantly deceiving and misleading his way out of trouble. He tries to get out of his creative writing essay by making up a lie, but eventually gets caught by his English teacher, Ms. Caldwell, who alerts his parents. He is given three hours to submit his essay, otherwise he will fail English and go to summer school.
On his way to turn it in after writing his essay which are based on all of the lies throughout his life, he is struck by the limousine of Hollywood producer Marty Wolf, who gives him a ride to the community college. Along the way, when Jason admits that he is a liar, Marty admit that he, too, is a liar, but a more professional one than Jason. Jason leaves with a “word of advice” from Marty: “The truth is overrated.” In a rush, Jason accidentally forgets his essay in the limo; Marty initially tries to return it, but is inspired by the story when he reads it and he decides to keep it for himself.
Jason realizes his essay is missing and tries to explain what happened, but neither his parents nor Ms. Caldwell believe him, and he is sent to summer school to repeat English. Later, he and his best friend Kaylee see a preview for a film produced by Wolf Pictures titled “Big Fat Liar”, realizing it was plagiarized from Jason’s essay. Determined to convince his parents he was being truthful after losing their trust, Jason and Kaylee fly to Los Angeles to confront Marty.
Upon arrival, they trick limo driver and struggling actor Frank Jackson into giving them a ride to the Wolf Pictures studio. Jason sneaks into Marty’s office, hoping to convince him to tell his parents what really happened, but Marty burns the essay and has Jason and Kaylee thrown out. Angered, the two decide to inconvenience him until he admits the truth, with Jackson joining them due to his own troubled history with Marty.
After gathering information about Marty’s cruel and abusive treatment of his employees, they begin to sabotage him through various pranks, such as dying his skin blue and hair orange, super gluing his headset, sending him to a child’s birthday party where he is mistaken for the hired clown, and modifying the controls to his car, which is destroyed by a wrestler known as “The Masher”.
These pranks make Marty miss his appointment with his boss, Universal Pictures president Marcus Duncan. After Marty’s previous film proves to be a critical and commercial failure, Marcus loses confidence in him and threatens to pull production for Big Fat Liar. Jason approaches Marty and agrees to help in exchange for his confession.
Guided by Jason, he makes a successful presentation which convinces Marcus’s wife, Shandra, to green-light Big Fat Liar, but Marcus warns Marty any mistakes will cause Universal to pull funding and end his career. Marty, however, betrays Jason again and calls security to arrest him and Kaylee. Marty’s assistant, Monty Kirkham, decides to help Jason and Kaylee expose him, having grown tired of his repeated verbal abuse. They rally all of his employees and devise a plan to stop him once and for all.
Big Fat Liar (2002)
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Starring: Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti, Amanda Bynes, Amy Hill, Amanda Detmer, Donald Faison, Lee Majors, Sandra Oh, Russell Hornsby, Christine Tucci
Screenplay by: Dan Schneider
Production Design by: Nina Ruscio
Cinematography by: Jonathan Brown
Film Editing by: Stuart H. Pappé, Kimberly Ray
Costume Design by: Sanja Milkovic Hays
Set Decoration by: Dena Roth
Art Direction by: Francis J. Pezza
Music by: Christophe Beck
MPAA Rating: PG for some language.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: February 8, 2002
Visits: 165
