Audiences expected to see Jim Carrey play a villain in "Batman Forever." Whether they will connect with him as a cable installer-turned-stalker in "The Cable Guy" remains to be seen.

"Ace Ventura 3" it's not. Instead, "The Cable Guy" is a dark, dark comedy that turns into a nearly straight suspense film in its final 15 minutes.

Matthew Broderick plays Steven Kovacs, a young architect who has just moved into a new apartment after breaking up with his girlfriend, Robin Harris (Leslie Mann). After getting his apartment wired for cable television, Steven suddenly finds that he can't get rid of the unnamed cable installer (Jim Carrey), who wants to help him win back Robin (using advice from Jerry Springer's talk show!) and become his best friend.

As it turns out, the Cable Guy is more than just off-kilter - he's nuts. When Steven finally tries to get him out of his life, he decides to exact his revenge.

The performances, especially that of Matthew Broderick, whose subtle timings make sure he does more than simply play straight man to Carrey, are good. Carrey, in a $20 million role, is alternately goofy and frightening in a role that wasn't actually written for him.

But "The Cable Guy" is as unbalanced as Carrey's character. It careens wildly between being an all-out Carrey cartoon (like the "Ace Ventura" movies), a parody of several television shows and films and finally, a thriller in the "Fatal Attraction" mold.

Director Ben Stiller ("Reality Bites") and first-time screenwriter Lou Holtz Jr. seem to have been at odds as to which direction they wanted to take the film in.

Stiller tries to make the film a hip, tongue-in-cheek indictment of mindless television, since the Cable Guy's sole human contact growing up, we find, was from television ("I learned the facts of life from watching `The Facts of Life,' " he proclaims pathetically.).

Television and film references fly furiously throughout, but they may go over many viewers' heads. For instance, as Steven and the Cable Guy duke it out in a medieval restaurant (in a funny scene that also goes on too long), the "Star Trek" battle theme plays triumphantly.

Such moments almost make the film worthwhile. Scenes detailing the murder trial of a former child star (Stiller) - including the made-for-TV movie "Brother Sweet Brother" starring Eric Roberts - are a hoot, especially as parodies of both the Simpson and Menendez trials. (Actually, those sequences would have made a much better movie than this one.).

Holtz's screenplay, though, wants to be "Rosemary's Baby" meets "The Odd Couple." Unfortunately, there's not a strong enough blend of the thrills and chuckles in it.

That's really "The Cable Guy's" biggest problem. It's not quite funny enough to pull off the stalker plotline as a comedy, and it's not scary enough to be a straight suspense film - although when Carrey's character goes offthe deep end, he is extremely vicious (a bathroom beating of one of Robin's dates is painful, not humorous).

The language and vulgarity in "The Cable Guy" really push the film's PG-13 rating. That might not be a surprise to anyone who's seen any of Carrey's other films, though.

However, it is a surprise to be coming from Stiller, who is much better than some of the sophomoric material. Worst of all is an especially tasteless game of "Porno Password" (like the gameshow "Password," except the clues are anatomical parts or explicit sex acts) that goes on much longer than it should have. In fact, why that scene wasn't revised and deleted before the final cut is anyone's guess.