The Cable Guy (DVD)

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room The Cable Guy is rarely a film that people talk about when mentioning the career of Jim Carrey. It's sad, because whilst it's definitely an acquired taste, it's got a wealth of clever, dark humour, and it's a pungent and resonant satire on the state of the media - hungry for scandal and violence. It depicts how that translates onto someone who has no other support system or means of telling right from wrong other than through a TV set. The film opens as Ernie "Chip" Douglas (Jim Carrey), installs Steven Kovacs' (Matthew Broderick) cable TV. Chip's a bit eccentric but seems nice ...  Read the complete review

--THE CABLE GUY-- 'The Cable Guy' was released in 1996 .- Directed by Ben Stiller (Reality Bites) and starring Jim Carrey, Jack Black and Steven M Kovaks. - Genre: Comedy/Thriller. - BBFC Rating: 12 (cut) - Running Time: 96 Minutes. When a young guy Steve Kovack (Matthew Broderick) moves into his new apartment after splitting up with his girlfriend, he can't wait to get the cable TV installed. - Enter 'The Cable Guy' Chip! AKA Ernie Douglas (Jim Carrey) as the extremely strange cable TV installer; with great delight Chip gives Steve a package of cable TV consisting of over 100 channels, for free. Steve tries to slip him $50 dollars for his ...  Read the complete review

"The Cable Guy" got a very rude reception when it came out due mainly to two things 1). The amount of money Jim Carrey got for doing this film (20 million!) and 2). The fact that Carrey wasn't doing his usual schtick. While I don't see why Carrey got paid $20 million for this, I also can't see why people are so down on Carrey in this. I for one actually liked the fact that he got past the Ace Ventura/Dumb and Dumber persona and became, in essence, a really disturbed Cable Guy. This isn't Jim Carrey's worst movie (that honor goes to "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls") but it isn't his funniest("Dumb and ...  Read the complete review

Although it's not the best film that these two actors have ever starred in, it's still a good laugh, and has some very dark comedy. Just how would you put off a cable guy who really didn't have any friends at all, and wanted you to be his best friend!? This is just what happens to poor old Matt Broderick in this film, and it's all about how he first befriends the Cable guy, after trying to bribe him to get the full package, and then finds his life falling apart around him, all because of the mysterious cable guy, who disappears without a trace, and sets him up to take a fall, all because he doesn't want to be his friend anymore. The ...  Read the complete review

This is actually one of my two favourite Jim Carrey films (The other being the beautiful 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'). In this film, Matthew Broderick plays a normal everyday guy who decides to get Cable, unfortunately for him the Cable Guy who comes to visit is Jim Carrey who desperately wants to be his friend. Moving on from some of his performances that rely purely on gurning, in this film the Cable Guy is a lonely man, filled with a need to be loved, extrovert and needy yet strangely unlovable. His performance is an absolutely comedy tour-de-force but as Broderick realises his new friend is slightly demented and tries to break off the friendship, ...  Read the complete review