MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:36 Long
A Review by:
– Stu Gotz
| The Cable Guy Movie Stats & Links |
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| Starring: | Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann |
| MPAA Rated: | PG-13 |
| Released By: | Columbia Pictures |
| Release Date: | 1996 |
| Kiddie Movie: | Mature situations I don’t think they’ll get. |
| Date Movie: | I can think of better movies to bring a date to. |
| Gratuitous Sex: | Sex and nudity would have made this movie better (Mann’s HOT!) |
| Gratuitous Violence: | Nothing goolish but definitely psychotic. |
| Action: | Ditto. |
| Laughs: | Lot’s but I expected more. |
| Memorable Scene: | “Medieval Times” busted my gut. |
| Memorable Quote: | Chip: “I want a brother.” Mom: “That’s why mommy’s going to happy hour.” |
| Directed By: | Ben Stiller |
Don’t take the kids to see this movie!
While waiting to get my free refill of popcorn* at the Marcus Theater I stuck up a conversation with the kid behind the counter. He told me “Cable Guy” was a black comedy. A black comedy? I thought the movie starred Jim Carrey and not Eddie Murphy or Martin Lawrence. What I think he meant to say was that “Cable Guy” is a dark comedy. That it is.
This movie could best be likened too “Fatal Attraction” on nitrous-oxide. Carrey plays Chip Douglas (remember My Three Sons). Chip is a loaner in life and will befriend anyone who is kind to him. When Chip juices up (free premium channels) Steven Kovacs (Broderick) cable, Steve makes the mistake of being nice to Chip. Thus begins the fatal attraction.
Chip pry’s into every aspect of Steven’s life. Social or sexual, Chip has no problem trying to fit into his new best friends life. This really pisses Steven off, but what can he do? He wants to keep his free cable so he plays along with Chip. This leads to a great roughhousing basketball game, Chip beating he piss out a guy in a bathroom who was hitting on Steven’s girlfriend, and a hilarious night at Medieval Times. The Medieval Times scenes are the funniest stuff in the whole movie and I can’t imagine how they ever got those scenes shot without the actors wetting their drawers.
A guy can only be nice for so long, and when Steve tries to give Chip the boot things turn ugly. Chip gets Steven arrested, makes a move for his girl, becomes beloved by Steven’s family, and even gets Steve fired. If I was Steve I would have ended this a lot sooner… with a shovel and a bag of lime.
So, why is Chip such a psycho? Here’s the message in the movie:. TV rots your brain and Chips brain was rotted at a young age. You see, while Chip’s mom was out boozing it up, she left her son alone at home with the baby-sitter (a television). Chip was lonely and wanted attention. Actually he wanted a brother “and that’s why mommy is going to happy hour.” At the end of the movie Chip realizes that the baby-sitter (now a satellite dish) is evil and must die so he throws himself on it(a great scene for the kids… Not).
So what do we have…? We have a movie that starts as a comedy, then gets psycho real fast, and ends with a moral (much like a Grimm Fairytale). I’m really glad I saw this movie at a matinee price because I wasn’t impressed. Sure you get a chuckle from Jim’s slapstick and funny voices but that’s not enough to make it worth eight bucks. I give “Cable Guy” 2.0/5.0
’nuff said.
*If you but a large popcorn or soda at Marcus you get free refills, so… Just find an empty and filler up. Hey! What do you expect? This job doesn’t pay much!