Directed by: Ben Stiller
Starring: Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, Jack Black, Leslie Mann, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, George Segal
The Cable Guy is a colossal miscalculation. It made me squirmy and uncomfortable, while failing to make me laugh. There aren't many unpleasant characters in movie history than Chip Douglas (Carrey), a menacing cable TV installer who stalks and bullies poor kind-hearted guys like Steven (Broderick) into befriending him. We learn Chip just wants to be loved, but what we feel (and certainly the other characters must as well) is repulsion. Yes, it seems Chip was neglected as a child, but we feel no sympathy for him. We want him to go away. If the movie thinks we should feel otherwise, than it is dead wrong.
We learn Chip was raised by television since his mother just plopped him in front of the TV instead of interacting with him. If the movie is intended as a satire of the effect TV has on a child's mind and connection to the world, then it fails there also. The only thing The Cable Guy doesn't fail to do is make me loathe Chip. Even as far as movie villains go, Chip is difficult to stomach. As played by Carrey, he is over-the-top to the point of overload. Carrey expends so much energy trying to be funny that we sense director Ben Stiller simply planted the camera and told Carrey to just do his thing. It is quite sad when Ace Ventura is more tolerable than Chip Douglas.
With films like The Cable Guy, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Liar Liar, and The Mask, Carrey assaults us and himself at times with his special brand of humor, which wasn't funny. I find the more you try to be funny, the less successful you are. At the height of his popularity, Carrey made $20 million a movie and the box office dictated that. People saw Jim Carrey and laughed and I felt sorry for them. Carrey is not good when he is playing "Jim Carrey", just like Robin Williams wasn't successful playing "Robin Williams". A role tailor-made for Jim Carrey isn't a role at all, but just a stage for Carrey to show up to work and throw whatever he can at the wall to see what would stick. In The Cable Guy, none of it does.
I pity the other actors in the film and admire their selflessness at the same time. Matthew Broderick is forced to stand by idly while Carrey eats the scenery and somehow not the camera. Carrey runs roughshod over everyone else in the movie, who seem grateful even to have lines. In between all of the early Carrey starring roles from the 90s was Dumb and Dumber (1994), in which Carrey actually stuck to within the confines of a character and allowed himself chemistry with co-star Jeff Daniels. It was a funny movie and gave me some hope that Carrey can play someone other than himself. He also was very good in movies like Man on the Moon (1999), in which he played Andy Kaufman, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). Movies like The Cable Guy sacrificed any notion of being any good and instead is content on letting Jim Carrey be Jim Carrey and watch the box office bucks roll in. The trouble is: It didn't do particularly well.
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