Episode #201: The Cable Guy (1996)

But they don't have the context of, boy, was word of mouth terrible on this movie.

Reviews were about 50-50.

But the negative reviews were super negative.

And...

People coming out of the theater seemed like the word of mouth, the buzz around the movie was it's nasty.

And I think it's just because as simplistic as this sounds, I'm sure you thought of this theory.

Carrie was coming off Ace Ventura one and two dumb and dumber Batman.

And this dark edge kind of threw them for a loop.

Is that pedantic observation seem seem accurate?

That's pretty much exactly where I was going to go with it, actually.

Like, if you look at Jim Carrey's filmography, not only this came out in 1996, and the year before that was Ace Ventura 2, and the year before that was Batman Forever, and the year before that was Ace Ventura 1, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber.

Right.

And that's like an all-time run.

Like, that's one of the biggest, like, best runs of the 90s, I think.

And right after this,

what did he do right after this?

They went right into Liar Liar and then The Truman Show and Man on the Moon and his later career renaissance.

I've read some reviews that said Table Guy was integral to him being able to evolve past just slapstick and farce, which he was great at and still is just a naturally funny man.

But Table Guy showed that there were more facets than just slapping his butt cheeks together and talking silly,

you

know?

Yeah, I think there's a definite argument to be made that, like, this is the film that showed everyone that he could do those things.

And there's an argument to be made that, like, The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, which are famously back-to-back Golden Globe winners for him, never happened without this movie.

Interesting.

I think you're probably right.

But they don't have the context of, boy, was word of mouth terrible on this movie.

Reviews were about 50-50.

But the negative reviews were super negative.

And...

People coming out of the theater seemed like the word of mouth, the buzz around the movie was it's nasty.

And I think it's just because as simplistic as this sounds, I'm sure you thought of this theory.

Carrie was coming off Ace Ventura one and two dumb and dumber Batman.

And this dark edge kind of threw them for a loop.

Is that pedantic observation seem seem accurate?

That's pretty much exactly where I was going to go with it, actually.

Like, if you look at Jim Carrey's filmography, not only this came out in 1996, and the year before that was Ace Ventura 2, and the year before that was Batman Forever, and the year before that was Ace Ventura 1, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber.

Right.

And that's like an all-time run.

Like, that's one of the biggest, like, best runs of the 90s, I think.

And right after this,

what did he do right after this?

They went right into Liar Liar and then The Truman Show and Man on the Moon and his later career renaissance.

I've read some reviews that said Table Guy was integral to him being able to evolve past just slapstick and farce, which he was great at and still is just a naturally funny man.

But Table Guy showed that there were more facets than just slapping his butt cheeks together and talking silly,

you

know?

Yeah, I think there's a definite argument to be made that, like, this is the film that showed everyone that he could do those things.

And there's an argument to be made that, like, The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, which are famously back-to-back Golden Globe winners for him, never happened without this movie.

Interesting.

I think you're probably right.