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Directed by “Big Fat Liar”, takes the smartest teenager in Michigan and pairs him up against the dumbest thirty something liar in Hollywood. Jason Shepherd is an 8th grader who lies about everything so when a teacher turns in a producers of a film, starring everyone’s favorite Jason, turns his homework into a movie, naturally his parents and teacher do not believe him. So he took his girlfriend Kaylee and goes to Hollywood to confront the creep who made the movie. (Of course he lies covering his absence) This does, almost what a 14 year old made up into a movie, manages to become strangely funny, one of those feel good comedies “Spy Kids” plots where the awarded teenager beats everybody and everything the adults throw at him, and everyone and everything puts reality on pause. A great movie for kids, something their parents do not have to suffer through.
It’s Frankie Muniz, known from “Malcolm in the Middle” and “My Dog Skip“, who portrays Jason. He’s set to star alongside Amanda Bynes, who is making her feature film debut after being a famous TV actress, alongside Paul Giamatti who plays Marty Wolf, the sleazy Hollywood elite. Giamatti’s performance can best be described as having the same sort of violent rage that the Beagle Boys had against Uncle Scrooge.
Yes, ‘The Wolfman’ did steal Jason’s story from 8th grade, which explains why his story fell out of his backpack and into a wolf’s limousine. For reasons I cannot disclose at the moment, it’s too complicated to explain. Marty is shocked when he sees the boy who claims to own the story that he used to teach wrote an entire book about it. When he asks the kid what he wants, his answer is far from his imagination: All I need is a phone call where you accept the fact that yes, i m sorry for what I said I did steal your child’s story. In response, Marty couldn’t help but burst out laughing I won’t get my hopes up.
The aggrandized narrative serves as a cover to take the children on a field trip to Hollywood, beginning with the Universal back lot, which, like all back lots in Hollywood, is overcrowded with innumerable extras dressed as Romans, aliens, cowboys, dancers from the can, and even biblical characters. Jason and Kaylee access the lot through the Universal tour and sneak into the props and wardrobe department which has all the equipment necessary for their mischievous deeds.
Marty Wolf is such a seven-letter word that Jason effortlessly wins the trust of two important people. His limo driver, Frank (Donald Faison), and Marty’s secretary Monty (Amanda Detmer). Frank has his own reasons for seeking vengeance. One: he used to be a promising actor until Marty wrote “loser” on his composite and sent it to every casting director in town. Monty does, too: She gets blamed for the Wolfman’s every mistake.
Out of the many funniest scenes in the film, a lot of them involve Giamatti, who as a result of many practical jokes pulled on him by the two kids starts suffering miserably. The funniest one: On the day of his important meeting with the studio head, he wakes up to find his swimming pool filled with blue dye. Undoubtedly he appears to audition for the Blue Man Group. The difference between Giamatti’s buffoonish role here and his sad, collapsing documentary producer in Todd Solondz’s “Storytelling” (also released today) is striking.
The charm of this movie is its confidence in the goofy story, and the movie never tries to force things. Muniz and Bynes share a simple relationship that is stereotypical for her age group (she is quite a bit taller, of course). It is about jokes and life devoid of any real world problems, and real life is probably much more threatening for a 14 year old than it is for a Hollywood kid. Giamatti’s slow burn is alternated with slow burns and fast, explosive rages, and his comeuppance in the end is entirely appropriate in movie terms. But that makes sense because in the end certain lines, like when the kids send the blue Wolfman, not to the studio head’s house like he expects, but to a birthday party where the young guests cheer “Hey, the clown! Let’s hurt him!” are quite charming on their own.
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