The Cable Guy


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Black Comedy Theatrical Trailer(s) Yes, 1
Rating Other Trailer(s) Yes, 2 - Dolby Digital City, Columbia Tristar DVD Promo
Year Released 1996 Commentary Tracks None
Running Time 92 minutes Other Extras Cast & Crew Filmographies
RSDL/Flipper No/No
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region 4 Director Ben Stiller
Studio
Distributor

Columbia Tristar
 Starring Jim Carrey
Matthew Broderick
Leslie Mann
George Segal
Case Transparent Amaray
RRP $34.95 Music John Ottman

 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None MPEG None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Dolby Digital 5.1
16x9 Enhancement Yes Soundtrack Languages English (Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
German (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Miscellaneous
Macrovision Yes
Subtitles English
German
French
Italian
Spanish
Dutch
Portuguese
Arabic
Czech
Danish
Finnish
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Icelandic
Norwegian
Polish
Swedish
Turkish		 Smoking No 

Plot Synopsis

    I'm not sure if I liked The Cable Guy or not. I liked the dark comedy of the second half of the movie, but I didn't particularly like the first half of the movie. It's certainly different.

    The Cable Guy (Jim Carrey) comes to install Steven's (Matthew Broderick) new cable service, since he has just been kicked out of his girlfriend, Robin's (Leslie Mann) house. But, The Cable Guy wants to be Steven's friend. Once he's invited in, there's no getting rid of him...

Transfer Quality

Video

    As always, this is a perfect video transfer from Columbia Tristar. The only glitch is the fact that the subtitles default to ON. Hopefully this is an isolated one-off error.

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was razor sharp and crystal clear throughout. Shadow detail was excellent, and no low level noise was apparent.

    The colours were well rendered at all times.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts were essentially non-existent with only some trivial aliasing present in such small amounts that it was barely worth noting. Film artefacts were rare though perhaps a little more prevalent than I would expect for a movie this recent.

Audio

    There are six audio tracks on this DVD - English Dolby Digital 2.0, surround-encoded, English Dolby Digital 5.1, and French, German, Italian and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1. I listened to the English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. As is always the inexplicable case when an English 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack is on a Columbia Tristar disc, this is the default soundtrack

    Dialogue was always spot on and easy to understand.

    There were no audio sync problems.

    The score by John Ottman was unusual sounding, but quite appropriate for the style of movie that this was.

     The surround channels were reasonably aggressively used for music and effects, creating quite an enveloping mix.

    The .1 channel received a moderate amount of signal.

Extras

    The DVCC splash is on this disc. The Dolby Digital City trailer on this disc.

What's Missing / What's Extra

    The Region 1 version of this disc also has a Pan & Scan version of the movie.

Menu

    The menu design is a standard Columbia Tristar menu. Functional, but plain. The menu is not 16x9 enhanced.

Theatrical Trailer

    This is presented at an aspect ratio of 4:3 (1.33:1), non-16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

DVD Trailer

    This is the new Columbia Tristar teaser trailer. It is presented at an aspect ratio of 4:3 with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Filmographies

    This is a comprehensive list of the stars' and the director's film credits. Compared with early efforts, these filmographies appear much more complete.

Summary

    The Cable Guy is an unusual movie. The disc, as are pretty much all of Columbia Tristar offerings, is pretty much perfect. I'd suggest you rent this one before you buy it, unless you like the movie, in which case you will not be disappointed.

    The video quality is exceptionally good.

    The audio quality is a good surrounding mix.

    The extras are limited but acceptable.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
25th May 1999

Review Equipment
DVD Pioneer DV-505, using S-Video output
Display Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 16:9 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Amplification 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer
Speakers Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer