1996 black comedyRating: 10/20
Plot: Steven, recovering from a break-up, has cable installed, and the titular character forces a friendship upon the poor guy. The relationship moves from inconvenient to annoying to threatening which reminds me of nearly every friendship that I've ever had.
Un Loco a Domicilio!
This is the perfect example of a movie that hits its peak right off the bat and then gets worse and worse as it goes. Considering that peak is the appearance of a Whammy from the game show Press Your Luck, that's probably not a good thing. The Broderick as a straight man to Carrey's wackiness works for a little bit although Carrey is, as you'd probably expect at this stage of his career, a bit much. Once we're through the exposition, this turns into an interesting enough story with these big clumsy comedy interruptions. The basketball scene, the Medieval restaurant scene, the Jefferson Airplane song. They're not all that funny--just really big. I do like how Carrey mimics the score though. And old people singing karaoke is always comedy gold. And this really is a who's-who of comedy legends--Jack Black, nearly tolerable in a couple scenes; Janeane Garofalo ("There were no utensils during medieval times hence there are no utensils at Medieval Times. Would you like a refill on your Pepsi?"); Kathy Griffin, all-too-briefly; Andy Dick, predictably the funniest person in the movie; director Ben Stiller playing two sort-of characters; Owen Wilson, also briefly; a tiny bit of David Cross; the omnitalented Eric Roberts. But it just doesn't work. It's already lost its way before it switches gears and gets ultra-dark in the last third, and it had already run out of gas before then. And trying to inject a little anti-television theme into the proceedings is really silly. There's a really nutty scene where a guy's television stops working so he picks up a book and starts reading. Come on. That's just nutty.
I had a hard time figuring out why I even bothered giving this movie a second chance. I think I saw it on a best "black comedy" list somewhere and figured I had missed something. Apparently, I only watched it because I wanted to see a large chunk of Sleepless in Seattle again.
Any Italian speakers want to translate that? Google tells me it's "A spot at home" which doesn't make any sense.
Like most comedians, I think Carrey would be great as a creepy killer (Norman Bates-like). He doesn't really work as well as just a creep. About the only thing I remember from this is the "Oh, Billy" line bothering me for months until I figured out it was from "Midnight Express" (a much better movie, by the way). The Garofalo bit you mentioned sounds funny, but I didn't care much for the rest of "The Cable Guy". A 10.
ReplyDeleteI would give this a 12 or so. ALMOST watchable again. There are some amusing parts to an otherwise odd little movie. I wanted to like it, because I saw this as a chance for the stalled career of Matthew Broderick to finally take off after Ferris Bueller. Alas, his erratic career would flounder on after this, and all the goodwill he had ever gotten from me would be lost on Godzilla just a couple years after The Cable Guy. I dont know...I guess I laughed a bit more than either Shane or Corey did.....about two numbers higher in the Shane scale. I liked the basketball scene, and the fighting in the arena with the Star Trek music theme playing.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, what the hell did that entire Ben Stiller as twins thing have to do with anything? I guess it was supposed to be an indictment on society watching stupid things, but wouldnt this movie be an indictment enough of that?