10 Awesome Movies Audiences Weren't Ready For

9. The Cable Guy

In the mid-90s, Jim Carrey was on one of Hollywood's most legendary hot streaks ever, appearing in two Ace Ventura movies, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber and Batman Forever consecutively, with each proving enormously successful at the box office.

That streak came to an abrupt end, however, with the release of 1996's The Cable Guy, a much darker comedy vehicle for Carrey directed by Ben Stiller, which was a massive departure from his broader prior crowd-pleasing roles.

In fairness, the film still turned a profit at the box office, but critical and fan response was incredibly mixed, and the film quickly sank without a trace while Carrey followed it up with the more accessible likes of Liar Liar and The Truman Show.

But The Cable Guy is a movie audiences failed because they just weren't ready to see Carrey reinvent his rubber-faced persona in this way. Though Carrey himself certainly rose to the challenge, his depiction of a deranged loner was deemed offputting by mass audiences out for the easy laughs.

Stiller's film was an impressively forward-thinking precis on the increasing intrusiveness of entertainment and technology in our everyday lives, but it's easy to imagine how The Cable Guy would've fared better with audiences a few years later.

With Carrey being taken more seriously as a dramatic actor after The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, not to mention America's growing appetite for dark humour in the cynical post-9/11 era, The Cable Guy could've broken out as a sure hit for Carrey rather than the cult curio it actually ended up.