The Cable Guy
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Features
• PAL
In Theaters : 14 June, 1996 |
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The Cable Guy Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Someone has to kill the babysitter
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The Cable Guy is a better film than it pretends to be. It's important to remember that it was made before Carrey began to show its dramatic side in excellent films like The Truman Show, Man On The Moon and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The Cable Guy was thrown into the pile of low-brow oddball comedies he was famous for like Ace Ventura and Dumb & Dumber. As such, it just wasn't funny enough; and it was way too dark to appeal to Carrey's young and comedy loving films. I can certainly say that at the age of 12, it sure didn't appeal to me. That's because The Cable Guy's biggest problem is that it's not quite sure what kind of film it's supposed to be; it wobbles from oddball comedy to psychological thriller, never really achieving focus in any one genre, never really being realized enough to be able to consider it a genre-transcending, solitary creation.
Still - The Cable Guy has its many merits, and it's an interesting enough creation to be worth the watch. And it's certainly not a comedy for kids. In fact it's a much more intelligent film, one that deals with the destructive effect television may or may not have had on many of the post-TV era children, but more importantly than that it deals with loneliness, insanity and exploitation. And Carrey's performance - laden though it is with his trademark physical humor, perfectly fit for the role - is good and dark enough to hit that. The Cable Guy is one of Carrey's most fascinating characters, and he's as dark and distressed as he is pathetic and laughable; the entire film in fact is much darker and more disturbing as may be apparent in first sight. A supporting cast filled with familiar comedians and frat-packers - Jack Black, Owen Wilson, George Segal, Andy Dick, Jeneane Garofalo, David Cross - doesn't help in detaching the film from its crippling comedy' label. Still, they all get the job done; in fact, Mathew Broderick, who plays straight man for Carrey, is probably the most forgettable actor in the film - which is probably for the best, because he plays the ultimate everyman loser, and he too does what he has to do.
It only occurred to me after re-watching it that The Cable Guy has very much in common with a more recent film that also deals with maddening loneliness and longing for human companionship - One Hour Photo starring Robin Williams. Like that film, The Cable Guy never really reaches the full of its potential, and has a story that's unbalanced and unstructured, and so remains an unsatisfying experience; but like One Hour Photo, The Cable Guy has a stellar enough lead performance and enough good points to be worth the watch. In fact, it's much easier to appreciate it now with a decade's hindsight, now that we've seen a lot more range from Jim Carrey. The film certainly has its moments of brilliance; the Sam Sweet side-plot (with a good and minor cameo from director Ben Stiller) and its conclusion is a wonderful touch, that compliments the ending and its point, and Jim Carrey's karaoke scene - beyond the obvious chuckles you may get from his lisping and catatonic singing - is also a disturbing one, and one shouldn't overlook the choice of a song (Jefferson Airplane's Somebody To Love'). The Cable Guy is not as good as it might have been but it's a daring creation, certainly the most daring one for Stiller as a director. Not exactly one for the ages but a unique and interesting film that's worth the watch. |
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The Cable Guy dvd movie.