Big Fat Liar on DVD
by Jim Bray
Here's a revenge flick that doesn't offer gratuitous violence
and in fact is an entertaining film that's suitable for the whole
family.
Unfortunately, it leaves a lot to be desired as a DVD since it's
offered only in the inferior Pan&Scan format that slices the edges off the
screen so people with 4x3 aspect ratio TV's will think they're getting the
whole picture.
They couldn't be more
wrong.
Big Fat Liar stars Frankie Muniz as Jason Shepard, an eighth
grader who's also a pathological liar. When he's caught lying about a school
assignment, he begs for a final chance and gets it, as long as he can get an
essay to his teacher by a certain time.
He does the work, but on his way to hand in the paper he runs into
Big Time Hollywood Producer Marty Wolf (deliciously played by Paul Giamatti),
and forgets his paper in Wolf's limousine.
Needless to say he's in even bigger trouble over his work and his
lack of trustworthiness.
To make matters worse for him, a few months later he sees the
teaser for an upcoming film called Big Fat Liar and, much to his chagrin,
realizes that it's the story he wrote but that was lost in the producer's limo.
He, with his friend Kaylee (Amanda Bynes), sneaks off to Hollywood
to find the producer and get him to tell his father the truth about the story,
so he can regain his father's trust.
Naturally, things don't work out exactly as planned and he's
forced to force the nasty Marty Wolf (who really is a poisonous individual) to
do the right thing.
We really expected Big Fat Liar to be a big, dumb and empty kiddie
flick, but were pleasantly surprised instead to find a funny and entertaining
movie. While relatively low budget (most of it's shot at Universal Studios,
which unapologetically plays itself), it's well written and performed, and is a
fun hour and a half in the home theater.
The Universal footage is actually pretty fun because you can watch
for all kinds of memorabilia in the background, things from the Bates Motel to
the Back to the Future DeLorean and assorted props and
costumes.
The DVD, as mentioned above, is very disappointing. For whatever
reason, Universal has chosen to release it only in the inferior Pan&Scan
format and while this might be acceptable to people who have yet to embrace the
new TV reality, it's totally unacceptable to those who've shelled out for 16x9
aspect ratio TV's.
The picture quality is fine, but unless you have an old fashioned
TV you have to stretch and/or zoom it to fill the screen lest you burn in the
bars the 4x3 picture leaves to each side of the rectangular screen. Zooming the
picture also cuts down on the resolution.
This is a slap in the face to the people who've been investing in
the DVD and HDTV formats. If you must release a movie in a Pan&Scan
version, it should be released with both versions on the same disc, or at least
with both versions on two discs in the same package.
It's bad enough that many new releases are coming out with
separate widescreen and P&S versions in separate boxes, which will force
consumers moving to 16x9 TV's to buy a second copy of the disc to get the full
benefit of the widescreen DVD format; but it's ridiculous to not even offer a
widescreen version when the movie was originally shot in a widescreen aspect
ratio.
The bastardization is announced in a disclaimer at the beginning
of the feature that trumpets that the movie Has been formatted to fit
your TV. Well not our TV, thank you very much for nothing.
Too bad. The picture looked fine, but of course since we had to
stretch it wider the cast looked as if it could collectively lose a few
pounds.
The audio, on the other hand, is excellent, with pretty good use
of surround but with good fidelity and richness in the highs and the lows. It's
offered in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS versions which is just how it
should be, though it also makes the lack of choice for the picture even harder
to take.
There are plenty of extras, too, starting with a running
commentary by Frankie Muniz and director Shawn Levy. There are also some
deleted scenes, Spyro Video Game Extras and an interactive
adventure in Universal Studios' backlot. You also get a Are
You A Big Fat Liar game (if we were we wouldn't have complained about the
Pan&Scan!), a trivia challenge, behind the scenes featurette and more.
Big Fat Liar, from Universal Home Video
88 min. Pan&Scan (1.33:1), not 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital 5.1
and DTS Surround
Starring Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti, Amanda Bynes
Produced by Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins
Written by Dan Schneider, Directed by Shawn Levy
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