'Big Fat Liar' is perfect for its target audience — kids

By Margaret A. McGurk
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BIG FAT LIAR (Rated PG for some language) Three Stars (Good) A comedy about a high-school student who gets revenge when his homework is stolen by a movie producer and transformed into a movie. The filmmakers understand kids and what makes them laugh. Starring Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti, and Amanda Bynes. Universal Pictures, 88 mins.

This pint-sized revenge fantasy taps into common youthful frustrations — bullies and skeptical parents — and spins them into a tale of scores settled and lessons learned (the lesson being, "Don't lie to your parents.")

Frankie Muniz, the winning teen-aged star of the "Malcolm in The Middle" TV series, sets things in motion as Jason Shepherd, a smart kid who spends more energy on outlandish excuses for not doing his homework than on actual homework.

His wayward creativity destroys his parents' trust in him, so they don't believe him when he says that a Hollywood producer stole his latest assignment.

Months later, Jason sees ads for an upcoming movie based on his paper and recruits his best friend Kaylee (Amanda Bynes of the TV series "All That") to go with him to Hollywood to set the producer straight.

Paul Giamatti plays producer Marty Wolf, "the meanest man in the world," with dastardly comic skill. Snarling insults at every person who crosses his path, making small talk with his stuffed monkey or performing a hilarious pre-swim poolside dance to "Hungry Like the Wolf," he is despicable and hysterical at the same time.

You can bust a gut hating this guy.

While plotting a series of elaborate pranks to defeat Wolf, the kids camp out in a vast storage room at Universal Studios. Aside from ranking as the most extended product-placement plug in the history of cinema, the setting gives the young stars the chance to go adorably nuts playing with costumes and props— and to assemble the tools for their elaborate plot. Eventually Wolf gets his satisfying comeuppance, made possible with the help of everyone who loathes him, which appears to be everyone in the movie business.

Director Shawn Levy moves the action along at a sprightly pace, awash in vivid color and decorated with show-business references, including cute homage to directors John Woo and Sergio Leone. There are also clever cameos, including Lee Majors as a veteran stunt director and Jaleel White (formerly Urkel on TV's "Family Matters") as himself.

The script by Dan Schneider and producer Brian Robbins is quick and clever, and shows off the talents of Giamatti and young Muniz to terrific effect.

The makers of "Big Fat Liar" understand kids and what makes them laugh. And that alone earns it a special place in the all-too-short list of genuinely funny comedies for kids.