This is an interesting movie because it's so bad, but it has such good moments, nevertheless.
As a movie, it doesn't really work. As a comedy, it's too twisted, dark, disturbed, and offers no 'release'.
As a serious drama, it's too wacky, unrealistic, nonsensical, silly, and over-the-top.
And of course, it has to have that stupid 'injected romance' syndrome. Why can't there EVER be a male protagonist in a movie that just doesn't care about women at all? Why does every one of them have to be a doormat? Women don't even respect doormats. It's like this guy has no life of his own without the pathetic, wimpy urge to please the va-jay-jay overlord(ess).
The reason why this movie doesn't work, has to do with what you said (very well said), and some other factors. It has good moments, but then it spoils them. It's like it gives you one thing, then punches you in the face and laughs and said "did you really believe I was going to give you that? nyaah!", and then apologizes and hands you a fruit basket and pets your dog.
And then throws the basket through your window.
It's like, the movie doesn't settle, but constantly throws itself around, until no one knows what it wants to be anymore, not even the movie itself.
It would've been better, if there had been a consistency, like in "Liar, Liar" (the best comedy ever, despite the slow, sappy waste of film-moments, and the awkward 'claw' and other non-working 'Carrey + Annoying Brat'-scenes - the only ones, where Carrey seems really fake - I know, he 'overacts' a lot, but he never seems quite as embarrassingly 'fake' as in those scenes), this could've been a classic.
If they had made him clearly one way or another - either never a symphatetic, seemingly innocent guy, or never really all that evil - but they couldn't resist trying to make him EVERYthing, thus making an incoherent mess of things.
They could've also utilized the 'raised by TV'-syndrome a bit better. Obsession about some dish does not quite cut it. Like, him believing all kinds of things that always happen in TV, but never in real life, and all kinds of speech patterns that you hear on TV, but not in real life, etc. Of course that'd be kinda hard, because movies and TVs are pretty much as unrealistic in so many things ..
But I mean, those more subtle, everyday things that you would NEVER say in real life, but you hear in TV all the time, like "What are YOU doing here?!". Does anyone ever say this to anyone in real life?
Wouldn't people rather say things like, "Hey, nice to see you" or "Hi, how's it goin'"?
The most frustrating bit about this movie, is, that it does have so much potential, but then it ends up wasting it all. The funny stuff is not THAT funny (not funny enough, like in Liar, Liar), and the 'thriller' stuff doesn't quite work as a thriller (and confuses the audience, that is ready to LAUGH, instead of FEAR), .. it's like a three-legged horse - it can look nice for awhile, but it can't quite perform the way horses are expected to.
Some good jokes, some nice wackiness, some interesting / good moments, some pretty good ideas - but OVERALL, it just doesn't work, and the ending ruins whatever interesting tension might've been left.
Plus, Matthew Broderidk is SOULLESS in this.
WHAT HAPPENED TO FERRIS, who always gets away with things and is clever enough to figure out how to deal with situations in a very intelligent manner? Suddenly he's just a moronic drone, a mangina, that just sacrifices his own self-worth and life on the altar of fema-fascist overlord. Like all men are expected to do nowadays.
Holy macril.
His character wasn't even very sympathetic, so the audience is FORCED to seek sympathetic characters elsewhere, and even this clearly PSYCHOTIC MANIAC starts looking like someone very sympathetic by comparison.
If they had managed to make someone with a spine, a soul, and a sympathetic nature the protagonist, and toned down the 'evil' of the cable guy a bit, THEN the movie could've worked.
But I don't know, I think the whole idea was a bit non-workable, and they could've come up with something better.
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