The Cable Guy

Whether Carrey's fans will like it or not, the film is easily his best crafted piece of work to date. [14 June 1996, p.22]

To watch Carrey leering with joy at the prospect of making respectable people guess dirty words, and Broderick trying to avoid the whole thing, is to enjoy their best comic synergy.

Poor Ben Stiller can't distill the darkness, slapstick and fantasy into a consistent directorial tone, but the leads' expert give-and-take make the movie far from unbearable. [14 June 1996, p.1D]

The mix of light comedy and really quite dark themes proved too much for many viewers, but this is worth a look for Broderick's performance and Carrey's obsessive touches.

A grating and sinister comedy on the dangers of television. This mean-spirited marriage of cautionary tale and thriller-satire follows the increasingly vicious antics of a deranged cable installer who stalks a preferred customer.

Carrey knocks himself out trying to make The Cable Guy different, then neglects the quiet, telling moments that would make it real.

The Cable Guy doesn't know when to pull the plug. Much of the film plays like a personal boob tube with Carrey trapped inside, determined to act his way out in a mugging freak show. He's a disturbing mixture of psychopath and pathetically misguided lonely soul.

This is such an underrated movie that was probably ahead of it's time. Jim Carrey kills this role and there are so many memorable scenes.

The rhythmic machinery of a broadband nightmare: A 4.0-star vivid surge of high-tension obsession.2012(4.0)I watched "The Cable Guy" in 2012, and it remains a vivid 4.0-star record in my archive—a revelation of how Jim Carrey’s raw, dark energy could transform a stagnant comedy premise into a sensational psychological encounter. This experience **** the fourth wall of the traditional "buddy comedy" by infusing the Cable Guy’s pathetic loneliness with a rhythmic energy that felt 100% chewy and sophisticated. The narrative rhythm was far from stagnant; instead, it offered a rhythmic journey through the raw human distrust of modern technology and the vivid stalking of a mundane life, leaving me in a state of absolute hororong as the Medieval Times duel redefined the boundaries of high-tension slapstick. Seeing the vivid, distorted intensity of Carrey’s performance provided an emotional payoff that felt both raw and sensational, proving that a mainstream comedy could be a vivid act of storytelling rebellion against stagnant, safe humor. The 95% preservation of my memory is dominated by the rhythmic, raw sound of the "Jefferson Airplane" karaoke and the vivid but pathetic desperation for a "preferred customer" bond, creating a permanent, sensational scar of dark wit on my soul. Unlike the stagnant 2.0-star drift of "Austin Powers in Goldmember" or the pathetic execution of "Papa," this encounter possessed a rebellious soul that turned a pathetic service call into a sensational masterpiece of cringe-comedy. It stands in my 2012 record as a powerful 4.0-star testament to the raw power of tonal risk—a high-tension encounter with the vivid rhythm of the unhinged that remains one of the most chewy artifacts of my cinematic journey.

Time has been kind to this movie. This was not bad at all. In fact, it was really damn good. It's important to know before going in that this is NOT a comedy, this is a psychological horror film. I can see it not working for some as a comedy. The jokes don't always land and the comedy is by far the weakest aspect of the film. It does however make up for it with it's insanely dark horror elements. It's really good as a horror film. It's kind of a deconstruction of Jim Carrey's classic comedic persona. If we met any person like the characters he plays in real life, they would be pretty scary dudes. It can get very geniunely disturbing.

This is one of the most tonally inconsistent movies I've ever seen. Is it a drama? a comedy? a thriller with some horror elements in it? Something inbetween all that, although I'm not even sure, if Chip, The Cable Guy, is even a human or a superhuman being of some sort. I have no idea what to take away from this movie, should I not trust my cable guy? Should I not trust strangers in general? I don't know, but I'll definitely not go through the effort and find it out. If you're a fan of Jim Carrey then maybe this one will be for you, otherwise I don't really know what to take away from it.

Stiller shouldn't have worried about the viewers, the character gets unchecked, more importantly Carrey isn't directed. The Cable Guy Stiller has good intentions. He treats his lead as a comic book hero. Unfortunately, he forgets to craft the world in a fantasy land. Now, the director Ben Stiller intends it to be in contrast to each other, the character and the world that doesn't accept or eyes him. This was his window for the laughs. And that is where even the script cheats him. There is this obsession of grounding these characters in a more pragmatic way. Which creates the ultimate tug of war that leaves the film hanging in the air empty handed. The other issue is how much time is spent upon building up the antics and the moments that drives those antics. A lot of cinematography too is directed towards the punch line of a joke. The scenarios are set separately for them, like waiting for Jim Carrey's reaction or the procedure of working hard on something that is about to be mutilated by someone else, the film thrives for such elements and as a result adds up extra irrelevant ten minutes on screen. So why is this that the film has aged well culturally? First of all, it deals with the social rigmarole that everyone goes through. And something that we all can connect instantly especially the track it follows, not only is it catchy but the film grows how it was promised to be. And center of this affection is led by Carrey's eccentric performance. He embodies the character so gleefully that it is almost as if he has been waiting to play a kooky personality as such his whole life. To be frank, it is a juicy role. Any character would love to play The Cable Guy, he has got a wide range that marginally hovers around being funny and wrong, there is a fine line to walk here.