25 - The Cable Guy

 Connection To 3 NINJAS KNUCKLE UP - Charles Napier

America, The World whatever... was just not ready for THIS Jim Carrey in 1996. The audience still wanted him bending over talking out of his butt and much was made of Carrey's $20 million fee for the movie, his run of movies before starting from the first Ace Ventura certainly showed he was bankable but a black comedy like this wouldn't have attracted the same audience even if Carrey took scale. In a different (later) time a movie directed by Ben Stiller and starring Carrey with roles for Jack Black and Owen Wilson and produced by Judd Apatow would sound like such a winner but it just wasn't to be.

I saw this initially in 1997, when I would have been 14/15 and I was one of the small number of British people who knew Jim Carrey was even before Ace Ventura, I knew him from In Living Color, Earth Girls Are Easy and because of them knew who he was when I saw him in his small role in The Dead Pool, so yeah when super-stardom came it was cool seeing it happen.

Anyway I digress and back to 1997, I'd seen all the stuff Carrey was doing post-Ace Ventura and this was a film I was going to see, but by the time I'd seen it, it had already flopped and being slated and in spite of that I enjoyed it, I recall watching it again around 2000 and still liking it, but haven't seen it since then so I'm curious to see if I still will enjoy a film I will defend some 14 years (maybe a touch more or less) as misunderstood and actually a really good black comedy. (all this first bit was actually written before the re-watch)...

Watching it now, I'm still on the side it's a good film - a good film with flaws, the overriding fact is to everyone watching is that Carrey's character is lonely but unhinged, Broderick really shouldn't have let it get that far even after the initial scenes with each other but it's still fun seeing Broderick let the all situation get out of control.

However one of my little problems is I don't think Broderick's character stands out enough, though you could argue he's another actor overshadowed by a force of nature in Carrey performance (I genuienly think the first actors to steal the show from Carrey where Cary Elwes in Liar Liar and Steve Carell in Bruce Almighty), but to be fair Owen Wilson in a smaller scene leaves an impression, Ben Stiller himself and Eric Roberts also pop in enjoyable bits.

There's it fair share of memorable scenes such as the karaoke scene or the jousting or even the aforementioned Owen Wilson scene and it's pace is not too bad. I'm not picking on Broderick here (because I've enjoyed him in plenty) but his scenes without Carrey tend to be some of the less interesting ones though if he shares the scene with Leslie Mann you have at least her to look at.

Overall a film that still as anchor of Carrey's price tag on it but still a film with enough redeeming qualities about it, no question about it though it's Carrey's film.

4 - Permanent Midnight

Connection To POISON IVY - Cheryl Ladd baby!

In 1998, Ben Stiller would make There's Something About Mary, which besides from being a great comedy seemed to mean Ben Stiller could only make one of two film about them 1 - a comedy or 2 - a comedy where embarrassing stuff happens to Ben Stiller, but hey you can't entirely blame Stiller on all this, it's what the studios want more then likely --- 1998 also saw Stiller star in this drama which was based on the autobiographical book by Jerry Stahl, a TV writer in the 80's/90's who wrote for popular shows such as ALF and Moonlighting as well as having an heroin addiction.

The film really failed to get an audience on initial release, and it's never been re-assessed in the last few years which is a shame because it's probably one of Stiller's best performances and is a pretty good film.

Stiller is telling most of the film in flashback to a woman (Maria Bello) that he picked up, she knows he's a recovering addict and he tells the story starting with a green card marriage to Elizabeth Hurley who sets him up with a job writing for not-ALF (it's called Mr. Chompers here but it's an obvious expy), he does well with it until his drug use gets him kicked off the show, he then gets a shot at another show where the star is a recovering addict but she insists he kicks the habit first and after attempting to be on a methadone program a new dealer introduces him to more drugs and it ends up costing him his job.

Hurley throws him out when after telling him she's pregnant (his kid - the two did have some sort of feelings) but she kicks him out when he shoots up in the bathroom almost straight away, the strain is even further put on when he shows up to the birth high. The final flashback is Hurley getting him to look after the baby in desperation and ends up trying to get a fix with the baby still in the car.

One aspect that's surprising of the film working is some of the supporting cast known from working with Stiller in comedies - Janeane Garofalo and Owen Wilson - as well as people like Fred Willard popping up, it's surprising it's doesn't fuck up the tone of the movie for people, which the same can be said for Ben Stiller, there was a danger the film could make people in the more dramatic stuff but it's never the case. I think this movie is more convincing then many drug films in the drug are bad m'kay category maybe because you feel the addiction and even the moments of getting clean are such a choir and the mess that has been made because of the stuff and it feels quite non-judgmental.

Overall I'd say it's certainly a four out of five film for me, which may rise if I thought about it more - it's certainly behind Trainspotting and Requiem For A Dream but I still rate it highly enough.