#144: The Cable Guy

Release Date: June 14th, 1996

Format: Streaming (Max)

Written by: Lou Holtz Jr.

Directed by: Ben Stiller

3 Stars

The Cable Guy is a fascinating movie that doesn’t realize its potential. Originally conceived by screenwriter Lou Holtz Jr. as a light comedy with Chris Farley as the titular character, director Ben Stiller liked the idea of taking the material down a darker, more menacing path. 

He should have gone further.

As it stands now, The Cable Guy is sort of stuck in the middle, tonally. There are light moments that maybe show the DNA of the script’s original tone, and there are dark moments that show where Stiller wanted to take it. 

Maybe as a first time director he couldn’t get the green light from the studios to really subvert the Jim Carrey film persona as it existed in the mid-’90s? 

If the studios intervened, I could understand why. In 1996, Jim Carrey was riding a rocketship on his way to becoming the biggest movie star in the world. And it’s important to note that The Cable Guy was more of a sputter in his ascent than anything. Maybe the studio was right. Many of Carrey’s fans thought it was a bit weird and a bit dark, and it suffered a little at the box office.

So my impression of The Cable Guy during this latest viewing is that it is a movie being pulled into two directions: A young filmmaker wanting to make a dark, disturbing comedy a la The King of Comedy vs. a studio and movie-going public who want to keep seeing big, silly Jim Carrey-starring vehicles.   

The Cable Guy lands somewhere in the middle.

Postscript: Are we sure that Lou Holtz Jr.’s original idea isn’t better? I like the Stiller/Carrey version, despite its tonal flaws, but a light comedy with Chris Farley as the dopey cable installer and David Spade as the Matthew Broderick character sounds pretty good to me.