The Cable Guy is a standard pre-The Truman Show vehicle for Jim Carrey, which means Carrey gets to make funny faces, recite his lines in lunatic tones of voice, and romp around like a maniac. This time the comedy is more sinister than usual; unfortunately, that just means the movie is frustrating and mean-spirited. Matthew Broderick's character exists only to be persecuted by Carrey's; if we actually cared about him, maybe this film would have been more successful. But we don't; nor can we relate, in the slightest bit, to Carrey's. He's not really a character either -- he's just this wound up thing that you'd like to go away. (Contrast his role here to the role he has in Liar Liar; the latter works because, even though Carrey is still out of control, he also plays a character we care about. Although he was the protagonist in that movie and the antagonist in this, the rule still applies and is still broken.)

I laughed at times, but the laughs were tainted with the increasingly apparent lack of inspiration. The movie lacked anything beyond fleetingly funny moments to hang a full-length feature on, and by the end, I was wholly unsatisfied.