The plot is plastered with one Hollywood cliche after another, most of which involve precocious kids getting the better of obnoxious adults.
Comment
02/08/02
Big Fat Liar (2002)
43
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:88
Fresh:38
Rotten:50
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: Though there's nothing that offensive about Big Fat Liar, it is filled with Hollywood cliches and cartoonish slapstick, making it strictly for kids.
Runtime: 88 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: An eighth grader named Jason (Frankie Muniz from MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE) presents elaborate excuses for never completing his class assignments. Finally his teacher catches him in one of his worst... [More]
Starring: Frankie Muniz, Amanda Bynes, Paul Giamatti, Isaiah Washington
Director: Shawn Levy
Reviews for Big Fat Liar
Becomes a progression of increasingly elaborate slapstick stunts, in the brutal, noisy Home Alone vein, in which the complexity of the pranks rarely yields a commensurate comic reward.
02/08/02
In gleefully, thumpingly hyperbolic terms, it covers just about every cliche in the compendium about crass, jaded movie types and the phony baloney movie biz.
02/08/02
I'd be the one lying if I said that Muniz and his inspired payback aren't sometimes funny.
02/08/02
One of those films where the characters inhabit that special annex of hell where adults behave like kids, children behave like adults and everyone screams at the top of their lungs no matter what the situation.
02/08/02
The overall effect is less like a children's movie than a recruitment film for future Hollywood sellouts.
02/08/02
Top CriticWhat starts off as a satisfying kids flck becomes increasingly implausible as it races through contrived plot points.
02/08/02
Any reasonably creative eighth-grader could have written a more credible script, though with the same number of continuity errors.
02/08/02
Giamatti's gift for neurotic mayhem lifts Big Fat Liar out of the realm of factory-produced children's pictures that preach various life lessons.
02/08/02
Where there's dumb and dumber, there's invariably dumbest, a case in point being Big Fat Liar.
02/08/02
The characters are so smug, that nothing they do seems appealing.
02/08/02
A kid's comedy with plenty of laughs, a sneaky wit and the abundant charm of its teen stars, Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes.
02/08/02
Feels at times like a giant commercial for Universal Studios, where much of the action takes place.
02/08/02
The sort of movie that hands critics a dagger and invites them to plunge right in.
02/08/02
The movie's charm is that it has confidence in this goofy story and doesn't push it too hard.
02/08/02
Top CriticPlayfully fun and equally witty, both kids and parents will thoroughly enjoy this one.
02/08/02
Top CriticA lame collection of dumber-than-dumb gags, the quality of Big Fat Liar is on par with that of the worst television sit-com gorged to four times its normal size.
02/08/02
It's just rather leaden and dull.
02/08/02
Not a whiff of satire is to be found; rather, the excesses and idiocies of Hollywood are celebrated.
02/08/02
It sends a very clear message to young viewers: it's okay to get revenge against someone you don't like.
02/07/02
Latest News for Big Fat Liar
January 31, 2006:
Levy's "Museum" Hires a Few New Staff Members
Zap2it.com reports that British funnyman Ricky Gervais has signed on to appear in Shawn Levy's big-budget, high-concept adventure comedy "Night at the Museum." And to... More...
October 07, 2005:
Sommers Out, Levy In on "Museum"
Since Stephen ("The Mummy") Sommers will be helming the "When Worlds Collide" remake for Paramount, Fox needed someone to step in on their... More...
January 07, 2002:
Muniz, the young star of TV's Malcolm in the Middle, is stuck in the middle again, this time as a student whose class paper has been stolen by a Hollywood producer. 
More...
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