In this likeable family comedy, Jason Shepherd (Frankie Muniz of “Malcolm in the Middle”) plays an 8th grader who relies on his easy smile and even easier lies to keep him out of trouble, with a little help from his reluctant but loyal friend Kaylee (Nickelodeon’s Amanda Bynes). But it all catches up with him when he tells his teacher an elaborate story about being late with his homework because his father choked on a meatball. Though he thinks he has backed it up by pretending to be his father on the phone, he is busted when his parents show up at school. He has until 6:00 pm to turn in the paper, which must be in his own handwriting. If he doesn’t get it in on time, he’ll have to repeat the class in summer school.

He writes a story called “Big Fat Liar.” Racing to get it in on time, he collides with a car that turns out to contain an even bigger liar than he is, Hollywood producer Marty Wolf (Paul Giamattti). Jason gets into Wolf’s car and everything falls out of his backpack. He shoves it all back in, but when he gets to the school, the story is missing. Summer school is bad enough, but even worse is that no one believes that he really did write the story or that he got a ride from a Hollywood producer. He is literally the boy who cried (Marty) Wolf.

Summer comes, and summer school is miserable. At the movies, Jason sees a coming attraction for a Marty Wolf movie called….”Big Fat Liar.” Wolf has taken the story Jason left in the car and turned it into a major motion picture!

Jason sees this as his chance to prove to his parents that for once he really was telling the truth. When his parents go away for the weekend, Jason take his entire bank account and buys two tickets to Los Angeles so that he and Kaylee can find Wolf and make him tell Jason’s father the truth.

Jason and Kaylee scam their way into getting a limo ride from the airport and duck off the Universal Studios tour bus to find Wolf’s office. Then they scam their way into his office, but Wolf refuses to tell the truth. So Jason and Kaylee, along with a growing group of fellow Wolf-haters, set up a series of pranks designed to torture Wolf into admitting that Jason wrote the story for his new movie.

Muniz and Giamatti are deft comic actors, but the highlight of the movie is Bynes as Kaylee. Her two different but equally hilarious renditions of Hollywood secretaries are gems. Giamatti is so relentlessly selfish and egotistical that it gets a bit tedious, but he does do a wonderful little dance to “Hungry Like a (what else?) Wolf.”

Parents should know that, while the movie’s theme is the importance of telling the truth and being trustworthy, the message is a little mixed. In order to prove that he was telling the truth about finishing his story, Jason and Kaylee have to lie, steal, vandalize, and generally behave in an irresponsible – and illegal – manner, even by the standards of comic fantasy. And at the end, Jason’s parents are proud of him for proving that he was not lying when he said he had written his paper, never mentioning that perhaps two 14-year-olds should not have flown to California when they were supposed to be at home. One small bright spot worth mentioning is that all of Jason’s efforts are intended to show that he was telling the truth. His motive for pursuing Wolf is never getting any money or credit for his story. Another strength of the movie is its racially diverse cast.

Families who see this movie should talk about why people lie and how it feels not to be trusted. When someone is caught in a lie, how can he or she regain the trust of those who have been disappointed? Would you like to see the movie based on Jason’s story? What do you think it would be like?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Harriet the Spy. The Kid, and Snow Day.

Renée Zellwegger is irresistible as Bridget Jones, in this delectable romantic comedy with some sly references to that uber-romantic comedy, Pride and Prejudice. From the opening credits, when we see her singing along with the radio to “All By Myself” in her flannel pajamas, we know that she is destined to find someone who loves her as much as we do already, and that we will have a lot of fun on the way there.

Bridget wants to lose weight, stop smoking and drinking, and stop worrying about getting a boyfriend -– so that she can get a boyfriend. But we know that she is just fine the way she is, and suspect that in her heart, she knows that, too. The trick is finding a guy who knows it, and before she can figure that out, she has to get through the gorgeous cad stage. That means an affair with her workaholic, alcoholic, self-centered, needy, but witty and undeniably extremely gorgeous boss, Daniel.

Hugh Grant seems positively relieved not to have to be the stammering, adorable, truehearted “Notting Hill” guy anymore. He plays the part of Daniel, “a disaster with a posh voice and a terrible character,” with such relish that we enjoy seeing Bridget fall for him almost as much as we enjoy seeing her tell him off.

But being taken advantage of by Daniel is not the worst of Bridget’s trials. There is her mother, who leaves her father for an oily home shopping channel pitchman with a fake tan. There is showing up for a “tarts and vicars” party in a Playboy bunny outfit because no one told her that they had decided not to have the guests wear costumes after all. There is the rather stunning shot of Bridget from below as she slides down a fireman’s pole, broadcast throughout the country on television. And there is the stiff and disapproving childhood neighbor, Mark Darcy, now a divorced barrister, who always seems to be there just as Bridget encounters disaster.

Like his namesake in Pride and Prejudice, though, Darcy turns out to have more tenderness and humor than one would think. And so do the filmmakers. Colin Firth, who played Darcy in the television miniseries “Pride and Prejudice,” appears as this Mr. Darcy as well, and his sly and subtle variation on the character is another of the movie’s great pleasures.

Parents should know that this movie is rated R for strong language and for sexual situations and references. There is a very brief shot of a naked couple making love. Characters drink and smoke a lot.

Families who see this movie should talk about how we sort through all of the expectations of our families and our society in deciding who we will be and what chances we will take. What does someone have to know about herself in order to turn down a Daniel? In order to understand what someone like Darcy has to offer?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “Four Weddings and a Funeral” (rated R) and everyone should watch Firth and Jennifer Ehle in the miniseries version of “Pride and Prejudice.” The classic MGM version with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson (adapted by Aldous Huxley) is also a treat.

This special effects action comedy is fun for kids and fairly painless for adults. More important, it is a rare film directed at kids from 4th-8th grade, that most neglected of movie audiences. Not surprisingly, it is produced by Nickelodeon, the cable channel dedicated to just that group.

Zak (Jesse Bradford), the son of a loving but preoccupied scientist, accidentally takes a top-secret device, thinking it is a watch. It turns out to be a mechanism for speeding up the metabolic rate of whoever is touching it so that they see the world around them as almost frozen. To the rest of the world, they are moving to fast to be seen. At first, Zak uses it to impress a pretty girl (Paula Garces as Francesca) and together they have fun with some pranks and pay-backs. But then the bad guys come after them, and Zak and Francesca have to save the world.

The plot is a throw-back to the old Disney classics like “The Shaggy Dog” (also with a pretty teenage girl named Francesca) and “The Absent-Minded Professor.” Director Jonathan Frakes (of “Star Trek”) ably handles the sci-fi aspect with special effects that truly are special. We see water droplets suspended in air and a bee floating over a flower. The movie zips along quickly and has a lively pop soundtrack.

Parents should know that there is mild peril, though the guns only shoot ice bullets (to shock the system out of hyper-time) and no one is hurt. Francesca wears some revealing outfits, but she and Zak share only a couple of kisses. The movie features multi-ethnic good and bad guys and Francesca is strong, smart, and brave.

Families who see the movie should talk about the problems of developing technologies that can get into the wrong hands and the problems of balancing commitments to work and family.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy The Rocketeer.

Chris Rock is a stand-up comic. The people behind this movie (the Weitz brothers, of “American Pie” and “Chuck and Buck”) wisely devote 25 percent of the film to Rock’s stand-up routine. Chris Rock is not an actor. He has a likeable comic presence and has made some memorable screen appearances in movies like “Dogma” (as an unrecorded disciple) and “Nurse Betty.” But he is not an actor. He has no capacity to show even the few emotions called for in this movie. During the dramatic and romantic episodes, he always appears to be counting the minutes before he can go back on stage. It is also a real disappointment to see the comic talents of one of today’s most talented actresses, Regina King (of “Jerry Maguire” and “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”) neglected

In this third movie version of the play originally called “Heaven Can Wait” (filmed under that name with Warren Beatty and filmed earlier as “Here Comes Mr. Jordan”), Rock plays Lance Barton, a would-be stand up comic who is prematurely delivered to heaven by an angel named Keyes (Eugene Levy) who did not know that he was supposed to survive a bicycle accident. Keyes’ boss, Mr. King (Chazz Palminteri), a cool, rat pack-ish guy in a dinner jacket, brings Lance back to earth to find him a new body to inhabit. Lance agrees to a temporary arrangement, the body of the world’s 15th richest man, Charles Wellington. Wellington is a white man in his sixties. And he has a young bimbo wife and an assistant who are trying to kill him.

Lance agrees to take on Wellington’s body when he sees Sontee (Regina King), a nurse who has come to tell Wellington off for taking over a local hospital and refusing patients who do not have insurance. But then he has to get used to being seen by the world as a rich white guy. When he tries to do his usual stand-up routine, about the differences between blacks and whites, the audience is shocked and offended. Somehow Sontee sees past his appearance,though. As they begin to fall in love, Lance is reluctant to leave Wellington’s body. But he is able to take what he has learned when it is time to move on.

Parents should know that the movie has strong language, including frequent use of the n-word. (The movie points out that everything depends on whether the word is said by a white person or a black person — this is well worth discussing.) There are sexual references and situations, including adultery and a proposed menage a trois (with two women in bed). A couple’s sexual relationship includes insults and fighting. Characters drink and smoke, and make drug references. Characters are killed (some accidentally) and one commits suicide because he has lost his money.

Families who see this movie should talk about what it would be like to inhabit the body of someone of another race (or gender). Tellingly, since he always appears the same to himself, Lance discovers that a new body he is inhabiting is black only when he tries to hail a cab and none will stop for him. How does humor change, based on who is telling the joke? What jokes do you tell about your own group that might offend you coming from someone else? Are there jokes you might tell among your own group that you would not say in a mixed group? Some families might want to talk about the conflicts between making a profit and helping the community raised by Sontee’s protests.

Families who enjoy this movie should see the two original versions with Robert Montgomery (father of “Betwitched’s” Elizabeth Montgomery) and Warren Beatty.

Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) falls in love with Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), a musician, and once they are married, he persuades her to move into the house she lived in as a child, which has been closed since her aunt was murdered there.

At first very happy, Paula soon becomes confused and insecure. While Gregory appears to be solicitous and caring, in reality he is cutting her off from all contact with anyone but himself, and making her doubt herself and her sanity. He convinces her that she is always losing things, that she sees things that are not there, that she is unstable and untrustworthy. Every night he leaves to play the piano in an apartment he has rented, and while he is gone the gaslights flicker and she hears mysterious noises from the attic. Gregory persuades her that these are just her delusions.

Just as Paula’s fragile hold on reality is about to break, she is visited by Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) of Scotland Yard, with information about Gregory. But can she trust him? Or is he just another illusion?

This classic of suspense is a good way to begin a conversation about vulnerability and manipulation. Gregory is almost able to drive Paula mad by making her think she is mad already. By cutting her off from any outside reality, by cooly denying what she sees and hears for herself, by telling her over and over again that she is helpless and incompetent, she begins to turn into the person he tells her that she is.

Families who see the movie should talk about these questions: “Gaslighting” someone is now an accepted psychiatric term, based on this movie, and its predecessor, the play “Angel Street.” What do you think it means? How does Gregory get Paula to doubt herself? How does the director help the viewer get some sense of Paula’s feelings of disorientation and doubt? Can someone make another person doubt him or herself as Gregory did? Can someone affect other people positively along the same lines, helping them to believe in themselves? How?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “Dial M for Murder” and “Suspicion.”