The Cable Guy - DVDfever.co.uk

The Cable Guyis, in essence, every film buff’s favourite person. As Steven’s (MatthewBroderick) best friend Rick (Jack Black) tells him, “just slip him$50 and he’ll give you all the movie channels for free”. Not wanting to push hisluck, he’s reluctant to ask cable guy Chip Douglas (Jim Carrey) aboutthis at first but casually mentions it as he’s leaving. Chip at first appearsto have taken offence at this and poses the threat of jail time for an illegalbribe…but gives in at the last second and reveals he’s just stringing Stevenalong and then promptly ‘fixes’ his cable choice.

As Chip leaves they exchange pleasantries, Chip turning a “see you around”-stylecomment into the pair of them going out for the evening the next day. Little bylittle he winds his way into Steven’s life, his girlfriend’s life – in as muchas trying to help the separated pair get back together by fair means or foul -to the point where he just can’t get rid of him, finally turning up at astrictly friends-and-family dinner party, but when Steven tells Chip that he hasno room in his life for a new friend, Chip goes into overdrive – as if he hasn’talready – and Steven will wish he’d just stuck to bog-standard terrestrial TV.

Highlight of this excellent comedy film by a mile is of course Jim Carrey,recently coming to the fore with The Truman Show after the flop ofAce Ventura: When Nature Calls, as the manic technician whose madnessknows no bounds and is the perfect example of a man who’s actions can never bepredicted, bringing many a laugh to this reviewer. Matthew Broderickspends a lot of his time looking bewildered but does a fine job as the straightman opposite Carrey. Cameos include the director Ben Stiller as murdererSam Sweet, whose tale of debauchery is plastered all over the cable newschannels, not to mention a quickly-made TV movie starring, also in a brief cameorole, Eric Roberts as himself as Sam Sweet, if you see what I mean.Finally, there’s a cameo from the prolific dour-faced and sarcastic comedienneJaneane Garofalo as the waitress in a Medieval-themed restaurant, whopulls off a splendid retort in her usual style to a question from Broderick :

(JG enters carrying a jug of Pepsi)
MB: Can I get a knife and fork ?
JG: There were no utensils in medieval times, hence there are no utensilsAT ‘Medieval Times’. Would you like a refill on that Pepsi ?
MB: There were no utensils, but there was Pepsi ?
JG: Dude, I gotta lotta tables…

The picture quality is fantastic and artifact-free and since it features a numberof facial close-ups, the skin tones are brought out perfectly. A number of scenesalso use plenty of colour, all of which are represented flawlessly here. The filmpresented in its original widescreen ratio of 2.35:1, is enhanced for 16:9widescreen televisions – thus allowing for 33% higher resolution – and theaverage bitrate is a fine 5.51 Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.Note that the back-cover states a film ratio of “16:9”, but thankfully the film isin its correct theatrical ratio and not cropped to 16:9, unlike two other recentreleases from other distributors, Sleepers (from Polygram) and BoogieNights (from Entertainment in Video).

The sound is also spot-on and well-used with many of Carrey’s scenes as punchy effectsare used to denote his offbeat behaviour. A Dolby Digital 5.1 option is therebut in English only.

Extras : Chapters/Theatrical Trailers :There are only 20 chapters but it covers most of the main scenes in this 92-minutefilm. A theatrical trailer is also included. Languages/Subtitles :The only language on this disc is English – for both Dolby Surround andDolby Digital 5.1 – but there are no subtitles which is a shame since youneed them to keep up with Carrey’s manic verbal delivery. Filmographies/Biographies :Brief filmographies are available for Broderick, Carrey, George Segal,Jack Black and love-interest Leslie Mann. Menu :The menu is static but the separate menus have colourful backdrops. It’s ashame it doesn’t have animated menus as it would benefit from a cable-interferencetype of effect between menus to coincide with the effect during the openingcredits. On playing the disc you see the Columbia TriStar logo before themain menu appears.

Upon selecting the “Start Movie” option, you’ll first see a “Sony PicturesDVD Center” logo, followed by the Dolby Digital helicopter demo, the copyrightlogo and then the film itself.

Overall, this is an excellent comedy in which Carrey shines in every scene,while each of these don’t last particularly long, there are plenty of them.Couple this with a brilliant transfer and it’s well worth a purchase. It’s justa shame there isn’t much in the way of extras. Also, the BBFC saw fit to cutfour seconds out of the film for “violent content”, but any cuts made aren’tobvious so it’s not a big deal to lose them.

FILM : *****PICTURE QUALITY: *****SOUND QUALITY: *****EXTRAS: **——————————-OVERALL: ****½

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Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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