Il rompiscatole

Matthew Broderick asked his girl to marry him and she asked him to move out. The eccentric guy who shows up to install cable in his new pad arrives just at the right time to become his friend. Only The Cable Guy (Jim Carrey) wants to be a little closer than Broderick is comfortable with...

The Cable Guy is a brave and daring tragi-comedy, a rare sort of movie where you're laughing one minute and scared the next.

I'm not sure if we'll ever get another chance to see Jim Carrey go this far out on a limb: director Ben Stiller has seemingly given him total carte blanche, resulting in a seemingly completely over-the-top characterisation, yet not so over the top that we can't get involved in the plot and take what his character does as really happening.

Notice the way that the cable guy often mimics moments from his favourite movies and works them into his controlling of the plot of this movie - or how he starts humming movie-music along to certain scenes, while the actual music of the movie mirrors the music the cable guy is creating. This will clue you into the other subtle elements which add towards this movie's satire of the effect TV has had on the modern psyche.

Its worth the price of rental alone to see Carrey's rendition of "Don't You Want Somebody to Love" in the famous karaoke scene.

After repeated viewings since its initial release, its one of the most memorable Carrey comedies, and one of the most memorable flicks of the 90's. 4/5.

The Cable Guy has now all but been forgotten by the movie world. It was released when Jim Carrey was on his way to being the new A list comedian, and thus, was considered only a slightly funny version of 'Ace Venture'. or The Mask' Or whatever. Personally, I don't consider The Cable Guy a comedy at all. Sure, there are some side splitting moments - Carrey is hilarious alongside Matthew Broderick's by the numbers 'average Joe', but id suggest that anyone who was not taken in by this film to look at it a little differently...

This is a horror film. I swear!

For me, Chip Douglas does not come across to me as a harmless lisping clingy chump - HELL NO! The guy is a maniac. An obsessive, intelligent, controlling, stalking "Fatal Attraction" styled nutter!

Watch it again!

For me, this is Jim Carrey's career launching performance. He has a lisp right? after a while, you don't really notice it do you? Right. This is an incredibly difficult task for an actor - maintaining a speech impediment for an entire film, keeping it level, and not exaggerating it, its really something to take a look at. Carrey's character is sick, and very very creepy. With Broderick et al giving relatively standard performances, Carrey's performance is a stand out, and Ben Stiller should be proud of this film and what it lead to in terms of Jim Carrey's career.

Trust me, if you didn't like this, take another look, and prepare to be freaked out by a very not funny, very creepy Carrey performance...

8/10

Some people really hated the movie. I saw it, I'll note I saw it on video and frankly I loved it. I think this was the start of Carrey really coming out although it has a couple of crude jokes I could have done without. You really feel for Broderick who starts out having a slightly annoying friend and ends up dealing with a stalker! Somehow the stalker goes from being exceedingly annoying to outsiders gaining acceptance from everybody around his victim. He casts a spell having his victim believe that he is in danger of losing everything if he does not co-operate with his tomentor. Anyway, if you like a bit of light dark comedy and order a pizza, I think the movie is worth a watch.

When first released, Cable Guy was such an unusual departure for Jim Carrey and his usual slapstick, manic, goofy comedies that people just didn't understand it or like it. When word of Carrey's enormous $20 million paycheck for this film spread, hopes were high that Cable Guy would be smothered in Carrey's slice of hilarious dementia to the extreme.

Carrey certainly brought an air of craziness to Chip Douglas, a lonely, TV-addicted, and creepy cable installer who befriends the unwilling Matthew Broderick (here, looking just nervous and bewildered for the entire film). But something was missing from this Carrey vehicle from the others: he was not all fun and games. In fact, he was downright funny weird, not funny haha.

So here lies one of the major problems people have with this film: it veers from dark comedy into darkness, period. Carrey isn't making an ass of himself in every scene. No. Instead, Carrey's Chip Douglas is an obsessive, extreme, two-faced sociopath. The result? What would be Jim Carrey's best performance to date, surpassed only by his Truman Burbank in The Truman Show.

Sure, it's got a story that's been done to death: normal guy meets psycho and is stalked. But oh, what fun it is to see Jim drag Matthew Broderick into such uncomfortable situations as playing Porno Password with his parents (Carrey whispering "Nipple" into Broderick's ear is absolute brilliance).

Cable Guy is definitely not for fans who want to see Jim Carrey do what created his career; that is, silly, goofy, and flailing comedy. However, avid fans of black comedies will love seeing Carrey's first step in his evolution as a gifted, serious, and undeniably interesting actor.

8 out of 10.

Jim Carrey has only been better than this in two movies, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", and "Man on the Moon", but both were more or less dramatic roles. Aside from the classic "Dumb and Dumber", none of his comedy roles can even begin to compare to his superb, electric performance here. Most people I know don't really enjoy this, but that's because they can't really relate, or they don't want to. Carrey plays 'Chip Douglas' (which might be his real name, or it might not), a Cable Guy brought up on TV and movies. His performance works so well because he normally goes too far with his antics, making himself seem annoying on occasion, rather than funny. Here, he plays a lunatic, so there are no limits for him to adhere to, and where he would normally seem over the top (the Medieval Times sequence), he is genuinely hilarious.

Now, I might not be a cable guy, but I'd be lying if I said that I don't spew lines from random movies out of nowhere, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have an obsession. Maybe it makes fellow fanatics a bit unsettled to see themselves compared to maniacs like Chip (which is probably why the critics assaulted this as well). Although this is by and large Carrey's movie, there is no doubt that Matthew Broderick, Jack Black, and Leslie Mann help elevate this film further with excellent performances. Ben Stiller has directed a few other films, but none of them even come close to matching this. He keeps a perfect balance between the dark and the funny, so "The Cable Guy" doesn't come across as too mean or sadistic. He also shows up in a running gag as a former child star from a cheesy old sitcom who shoots his own brother and goes to court, a trial whose verdict is highly anticipated by pretty much everyone. Owen Wilson has another great cameo as a cocky ass who takes Steven's (Broderick) girlfriend (Mann) on a date and gets assaulted by Chip when he goes to the washroom.

I have never seen a movie like "The Cable Guy", and chances are you haven't either. This is a great movie and one of my personal favorites. It's important you don't watch this expecting a cheery slapstick comedy. If you know what to expect, this will be a fun time.

8/10