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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: DTS 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English
  Extras
  • Deleted scenes
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary - by director Tom Shadyac
  • Featurette - Bridging the Comedy Chasm
  • Photo gallery
  • Animated menus
  • Outtakes
  • DTS trailer

Liar Liar: SE

Universal/Universal . R4 . COLOR . 82 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Make the bad man stop! As a kid, Jim Carrey was amusing and funny to watch. Mum never liked him because of his “rubber face” and now, years on, this matured reviewer can see where she was coming from. Jim Carrey’s acting (if you can call it that) is simply downright annoying. His presence on screen is just so creepy and icky that it makes it hard to feel any sympathy for him. But this film does still have some funny moments. After you gain the ability to ignore Jim Carrey altogether (it takes some time...), Liar Liar can actually be enjoyed for other reasons, such as Cary Elwes (Twister), Swoosie Kurtz (Cruel Intentions) and Jennifer Tilley (Monsters, Inc.) who all provide minor, yet terrific, talents to the film.

To get the most out of Liar Liar you need to be seriously disturbed when you are sober, or a little under the influence. The latter is a better option because it means that you actually may not remember the film, which is a good thing because there is little-to-nothing memorable about it. It is just good to see that Carrey has moved on from this style of “over-acting” (as quoted by Kurtz) comedy to more serious yet still comic roles, such as in The Truman Show or The Majestic.

Fletcher Reede (Carrey) is a talented lawyer who wins case after case by lying. His son even got his father’s career mixed up with a “liar” instead of a “lawyer”. After being ridden by the boss (really "ridden"), Fletcher misses out on his son’s birthday party after promising his presence. Just another of many lies, and also another disappointment for his son. So as the candles get blown out at 8:15, his son makes a wish – for his father not to tell any lies for a day. The wish succeeds - but the next day Fletcher has a seriously enormous divorce case to fight and needs his ability to lie. His comments to colleagues and public members are the same thoughts we all think but not say, when someone asks whether we like their dress, or if they know what they were doing wrong. He is like the little devil that sits on your shoulder telling you the evil things about people around you.

OK, in summary, the film is quite entertaining and funny if you are able to stomach Carrey’s acting. That is the key element that makes Liar Liar so ideal for so many people, but it is also the element that makes this 82 minute film really drag.

  Video
Contract

The film is presented in its original aspect of 1.85:1, and is 16:9 enhanced. This stunning transfer has very little wrong with it, only minor nuisances.

The colours look superb for the duration of the film, with bright and stunning results. But this is also the problem, you see, as they are too bright. The titles in the film melt into the light portions of the frame, and you can’t read them. This also occurs during the end credits. With this extra brightness, it does make skin tones a tad unrealistically bright and unhealthy. The other colour hues look stunning, and are richly saturated without being overdone. Blacks and shadow detail are superb with a clear definition. The detail of the image on the whole is incredible, with a superb clarity and razor sharp image.

Film grain is quite apparent during the opening Universal tag, making the film feel much older than it really is. For the remainder of the film grain is not a problem at all, and the only nuisance comes from film artefacts. The film artefacts are minute and barely noticeable, but this makes them even more annoying. They are few and far between, but still stand out against the bright backdrops.

No compression-related artefacts are visible, and the length of the film means that it can fit nicely on a single layer without any blocking effects.

  Audio
Contract

Two audio tracks are available on this Special Edition disc, both in English 5.1 but one is Dolby Digital and the other is DTS. As for which is better, well simply select a track and listen to it. For the general viewer won’t even notice a difference between the two, and they both sound great.

Dialogue is crystal clear throughout, even though many of the vocal... um... noises (Carrey can be thanked for that) made can’t really be classified as ‘dialogue’. The surrounds are incredibly quiet and subdued and chime in to subtly support the score as well as providing ambience at an airport scene. As for the subwoofer, it has little-to-nothing to do for the duration of the film, except during the climax at the airport. Nothing wall-shaking or stomach-churning, but impressive nonetheless.

  Extras
Contract

This disc is part of the recent set of Universal ‘Special Editions’ with DTS soundtracks and a bag of extras. Well, if it's extras you want then it's time for fans to upgrade from their basic Columbia release to this corker of a disc.

To start off with, director Tom Shadyac provides an informative and somewhat annoying audio commentary, where he discusses how good an actor Jim Carrey is. Pull the other one! The 16 minute featurette entitled “Bridging the Comedy Chasm” is your usual promotional-style featurette, featuring the gushing and sucking up that these contain where all-the-cast-members-love-all-the-other-cast-members. Can you get me a bucket please?! The three minute deleted scene is a courtroom scene which belongs at the start of the film, and is a welcome addition for fans, but doesn’t offer anything terribly new for the film. It just shows how much of a brilliant lawyer he is. The outtakes are brief, yet amusing, and are different from those shown in the end credits of the film. But by the end of it, they are no longer stuff-ups and mishaps but more of the overacting, which, then, a million takes later, becomes over re-acting... again, and again. The theatrical trailer does a great job at describing the genre and tone of the film, without giving away all the funny sequences. Finally, a series of 91 still images lie within the photo gallery, which feature behind the scenes photos and film stills. OK, not your big blockbuster style features, but informative for the genre of film.

  Overall  
Contract

Go out and grab this disc if you’re a Jim Carrey fan, or if your out for night’s mindless entertainment. No - really, really, really mindless - and assuming you don’t mind watching a grown man make an absolute fool of himself on screen to such an irritatingly annoying degree. The transfer is great, as you can expect from Universal, while the bundle of features doesn’t break any barriers but does give the audience some insight into the film. You really gotta love Jim Carrey to buy this one...


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      And I quote...
    "Top-notch acting and a superb script tie together to create an awesome film, 10 out of 10. Can you guess who the liar liar is now?"
    - Martin Friedel
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Philips DVD 736K
    • TV:
          TEAC EU68-ST
    • Speakers:
          Teac PLS-60 Home Theatre System
    • Centre Speaker:
          Teac PLS-60 Home Theatre System
    • Surrounds:
          Teac PLS-60 Home Theatre System
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
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