Fletcher Reed (Jim Carrey) is your typical lawyer in that he’s successful and seemingly loves his job. He openly lies each and every day to the judge just so his client can win the case. In fact Fletcher has gotten so accustom to lying so much that he doesn’t even realize that his son Max (Justin Reed) has pretty much became aware that his father is a liar (he means to say lawyer). When Fletcher doesn’t show up to Max’s birthday, Max wishes that for 24 hours his father couldn’t tell a lie. Enter the real humorous and…sometimes touching portion of the film as Fletcher slowly realizes that his son is trying to teach him something about his life.
The biggest positive about a film like Liar Liar is that the film has so many numerous sequences where the viewer can’t help but laugh or at least crack a smile. From the ‘scratched my car’ joke to the ‘do you know why I pulled you over’ joke, the laughs are consistent. But the most important thing here is that the laughs are actually funny and not gross out. Liar Liar represents a time when Hollywood brought out films that contained genuine humor that might occur in real-life instead of completely disgusting humor that you don’t laugh at, but rather humor that you cringe at.
Even though Liar Liar is hilarious, one can’t help but imagine what the film might have been like without Jim Carrey. Hell, could the film even have been made? The film is intentionally sappy requiring the emotions to flow as we begin to feel for Fletcher. He really, genuinely wants to improve his lifestyle so he can be with his son. While Carrey doesn’t completely sell the sappy emotions, I can’t imagine anyone else in this role could have brought the amount of humor and quality to the role.
Liar Liar, quite possibly, might be Jim Carrey’s comedic highlight of his entire career. The film is non-stop laughs, contains a good message, and showcases the type of comedian Carrey was. If you haven’t seen the film yet, check this one out as you surely won’t be disappointed.
Video
Presented in a 1080p, VC-1 Encoded,
Color usage was fine, but never became overly impressive. The film’s palette contains a majority of lighter based colors like peaches, blues, greens, etc, which causes a bit of EE to show up in some of the outdoor sequences (check out the sequence where Fletcher is racing through traffic. Noticeable, but not overly present). Grain and video noise (check out the junkyard sequence) is also present, but never does it become annoying. Even though it would’ve been nice for Universal to remaster this one, especially when you consider the huge success of the film ($181M domestic), the provided transfer reminded me of the recent Nutty Professor in that it’s just fine, but nothing overly impressive.
Audio
Arriving with the standard Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, Liar Liar presents an audio experience that isn’t too boasting, but still is just fine for the provided material.
Dialogue was clean and clear with or without the provided subtitles. Surround usage is pretty much absent for a majority of the film until the 1:10 mark or so when Fletcher arrives at airport. As the jet is ready to take off and Fletcher zooms after it, the jet’s engine kicked in as did the surrounds in the room. Dynamic Range, as well, was absent pretty much until this sequence. All in all, this track was a bit disappointing as I expected more of a solid sound field. Instead the audio is really absent for 80% of the film.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary with director Tom Shadyac: What a funny commentary this one was folks. Director Tom Shadyac gives us tons of information into the film that is consistently pleasing.
- Bridging the Comedy Chasm: This 16 minute feature serves as a making of promotional kit. The cast and crew offer a few insightful comments, but a majority of the comments were more ‘oh, he’s great’ instead of actually speaking on the film-making process.
- Deleted Scene: This 4 minute scene focuses on just the type of liar Fletcher is.
- Outtakes: I’ve always enjoyed Outtakes in a Jim Carrey film as they showcase the man in his natural realm. Here we get about 2 minutes of outtakes.
Final Thoughts
So Liar Liar has hit the HD DVD world. Is it worth your Hi-Def dollar? Well, if you haven’t owned the SD DVD or got that for ultra cheap, the slightly upgrade video and decent audio won’t really matter to you. Neither will the ported supplements. Most will be purchasing this film for the humor, not for the visuals. If you go in with this mentality, you’ll come out generally pleased at what’s in front of you. Just don’t expect a knockout A/V experience.
Special Features List
- Audio Commentary with director Tom Shadyac
- Bridging the Comedy Chasm
- Deleted Scene
- Outtakes
