BBM at the Movies - Cable Guy review

    Cable Guy     Bush - 6
       Score - 6

   1996
   92 mins
   dir - Ben Stiller
   stars - Jim Carrey             - Chip Douglas
             Matthew Broderick - Steven Kovacs
             Leslie Mann            - Robin Harris
             George Segal          - Steven's Father
             Diane Baker            - Steven's Mother
             Ben Stiller               - Sam Sweet/Stan Sweet

    Chip Douglas is a very lonely SOB. When he meets Steven whilst installing his cable TV for him he begins a friendship with Seven that for the most part is only a one way thing, and we soon see that Chip Douglas is an obsessive weirdo who will do anything to remain friends with Steven.
     The manic humour is a bit more restrained and it clearly represents a departure from the likes of his previous movies such as Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber etc. This performance could perhaps be seen as a precursor to his later performances in the likes of the Truman Show and Man on the Moon and was definitely a bit of a different step for Carrey because Cable Guy isn't a film that allowed him to just do all the insane stuff that he previously did. However, having said this there were some quality bits in it - The Medieval scene, the Silence of the Lambs bit and the porno password game are three that come immediately to mind.
     Bad points about the are the lame ending and the fact that it could have been much better if only it had been taked a step further and instead of wanting to be a really dark comedy it had the testicular fortitude to go ahead and do it and see what happened.
     Like most of Jim Carrey's films it was a bit hit and miss but all in all it stayed on the right side of the boarder. It isn't one of his most popular films but is an interesting addition to his list of movies.
p.s. Ben Stiller did an OK job in his first outing as director.