Appearing on Conan O’Brien‘s podcast recently, Judd Apatow recalled that the 1996 movie that he co-produced, The Cable Guy, became a victim of bad press; all people would talk about at the time was Jim Carrey’s reported (and record-breaking) $20 million paycheck. The movie underperformed at the box office and earned mixed reviews, but has now become something of a cult favorite. Directed by Ben Stiller, The Cable Guy marked a major creative deviation for Carrey, who had become one of the biggest stars in the world by then thanks to his zany comedy films. Unlike The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Cable Guy was a darkly comedic thriller in which he played a deranged stalker. The movie is currently available to stream for free domestically on the Pluto TV service, which it’ll leave at the end of the month.
The Cable Guy also features Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann, and Jack Black in supporting roles. Produced on a reported budget of nearly $50 million, it grossed a little over $100 million globally — remember, Carrey had been delivering hits for a while by then. He’d go on to headline even bigger blockbusters, such as Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar, and The Truman Show. The Cable Guy opened to mixed reviews, and is now sitting at a 57% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “The Cable Guy‘s dark flashes of thought-provoking, subversive wit are often — but not always enough to counter its frustratingly uneven storytelling approach.”
Jim Carrey Has Starred in Only 3 Films This Decade
Carrey famously took a step back from mainstream public life in the 2010s, but has since made a comeback with three Sonic the Hedgehog blockbusters, which have earned a combined total of over $1.1 billion at the global box office. Stiller, on the other hand, went on to direct another cult favorite, Zoolander, before directing the far more mainstream Tropic Thunder. In the last decade, he has attempted to gain prestige recognition, with films such as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and the shows Escape at Dannemora and Severance. The latter remains one of the most acclaimed projects of the streaming era, and has been largely responsible for putting Apple TV on the map. More recently, Stiller directed a documentary about his parents’ partnership, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost. You can check it out on Apple TV, and you can watch The Cable Guy on Pluto TV until the end of the month.
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