15 Fascinating Premises That Were Bigger Than The Movies Themselves

7. Liar Liar / Yes Man

The Premise: Jim Carrey plays a lawyer in Liar Liar who discovers that he can't lie; in Yes Man, he's a guy who believes he'll be cursed if he ever says no to anything again. Filmmakers seem to love putting wacky Jim Carrey into improbable situations, whether he's being bestowed with all of a deity's powers, being the unbeknownst star of reality TV show, having his ex erased from his mind or even crashing Anchorman 2. Both Liar Liar and Yes Man are more of the same in that sense. Liar Liar was a sweet, fairly successful film in which a boy makes a birthday wish that his lawyer father can't lie for a whole day, and Yes Man featured a pessimistic Carrey going to a motivational seminar that encouraged him to say yes to everything. Both films are naturally attractive from those premises; there's unbelievable possibility there, and there's the chance to set up the first half of the movie in sketches rather than scenes, allowing for any character development to be gained from what Carrey learns in these crazy situations. And really, Jim Carrey's the perfect character to put in those kind of scenes; he has the bewildered expression for it and the gasp of an excitable child. The less said though about Eddie Murphy's A Thousand Words, the better.