The Cable Guy
- PG-13
- 1996
- 1 hr 36 min
-
6.1 (153,077)
“The Cable Guy” is a very dark comedy starring Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. The director is Ben Stiller. Steven Kovacs is down on his luck. After he is rebuffed by his girlfriend, he moves out and gets his own apartment. During this transition he is introduced to his cable guy, Ernie “Chip” Douglas. The two become friends and Steven asks Chip to hook him up with free cable. Chip agrees with the stipulation that the two hang out the next day. The next few days are a whirlwind for Steven. Chip encourages him to invite his girlfriend over to watch movies on his cable but Chip sabotages the cable reception. Then Chip takes Steven out to dinner at a medieval themed restaurant where he signs Steven up to do battle with him with midlevel weaponry. Steven starts to believe that Chip has become obsessed with him. Chip leaves many rambling messages on Steven’s phone message machine. Later, Chip installs an expensive sound system in Steven’s apartment and hosts a big karaoke party where Steven meets Heather, a pretty girl that he sleeps with. The next day Chip reveals that Heather is actually a prostitute. This makes Steven angry and he throws Chip out of his apartment and his life. Chip does not want to be ignored. He tracks down Steven’s ex-girlfriend, Robin, who was on a date with another man. He follows her date to the bathroom and beats him up and tells him to stay away from Robin. Chip later makes moves on Robin, he upgrades her cable. He sets Steven up to suffer some embarrassing situations and weaves his way into Robin’s life. The film’s climax sees Steven facing off against Chip. He finds that Chip was fired from the cable company for stalking customers. Chip takes Robin hostage and Steven has to do battle on Chip’s home turf, at the cable company’s satellite dish.
