 | |
List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 30739
Released: February 21, 2006 |
| Our Price: $2.50 |
| Used Price: $0.42 |
|
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
Popular Chicago weatherman Dave Spritz (Nicolas Cage) has a shot at the big time when a national morning television show calls him for an audition. Professionally, Dave is on top of the world, but his personal life is in complete disarray. The harder he tries to hold on, the more he loses his grip. His painful divorce, his Pulitzer Prize-winning dad's (Michael Caine) illness, and trouble with his kids have Dave poised on the knife's edge between stability and calamity. Trying to gain control of his situation, Dave slowly comes to realize that life, much like the weather, is completely unpredictable.
Description of The Weather Man (Widescreen Edition):
Nobody does comic existential angst like Nicolas Cage, who gets a good workout in The Weather Man, an underrated slice of quiet desperation. Cage plays David Spritz, a Chicago TV meteorologist who knows only too well the constant uncertainty of predicting the weather. Despite a possible offer from a network morning show, David's life is a mess: he's estranged from his kids and irritated wife (Hope Davis), he's perpetually at odds with his remote father (Michael Caine), and lately people on the street have had the disconcerting habit of throwing food at him. Director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) has perhaps too heavy a touch for this kind of comic melancholy, but screenwriter Steven Conrad has an interesting, almost Mamet-like ear for "written" dialogue--Cage has a few voiceover monologues, including an uproarious sequence involving tartar sauce and a walk to the store, that are hugely funny. It's possible that we've seen Cage in this kind of character one too many times, but he's still good at it, and his doleful face and pasted-on smile fit the mood of the picture. Unlike the heroes of most Hollywood movies, David Spritz doesn't always--or often--do the right thing, but Cage makes you want to see the poor sap make it. --Robert Horton
The Weather Man (Widescreen Edition) Reviews:
Dreary, dismal, disappointing 
2009-11-18 - Crude in spots. Despite two good actors, Cage and Caine, fails to elicit caring about them (except in a negative way). If the second half (which I didn't watch) turned up the happy music and redeemed the main character, it's unwarranted and unbelievable. If you're going to waste your time, rent it or borrow from the library.
Kinda Boring 
2009-10-22 - Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3RXW1TTKXMJY6
Hilariously Funny and Unique for a Major Film 
2009-08-24 - Directed by Gore Verbinski, who previously directed the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, The Weather Man is a low-key, deadpan comedy-drama in the vein of About Schmidt.
Nicolas Cage plays Dave Spritz, a Chicago-based weather man who is not the smiling personality from TV in real life. He has a rocky relationship with his ex-wife (Hope Davis), his son has experimented with drugs, his daughter is grossly overweight, and people tend to throw fast food at him. He lives a very droll existence, trying to escape the shadow cast over him by his Pulitzer Prize winning father Robert Spritzel (the wonderful Michael Caine).
As written by Steve Conrad, these character's seem all too realistic. No one and nothing is sugarcoated in a typical Hollywood fashion. It's, in fact, rather remarkable that this was funded and released by a major studio...It has the makings of a small, independent movie and it's refreshing to see a quirky little movie like this come out of the Hollywood system.
The entire film is gloomy and monotonous. For a movie entitled The Weather Man, there isn't much variance in weather patterns here. The sky is always gray, it's usually raining or snowing, and Verbinski wisely avoids the use of brightly-colored anything in the film.
The acting is pitch-perfect. Nicolas Cage has been criticized for his monotonous approach to many roles, but here it serves him perfectly. Even those people who don't like Cage will be hard-pressed to admit he doesn't play this character perfectly. Michael Caine too is spot-on as Dave's father.
What's so odd about The Weather Man is that it is actually very funny. It never strains for laughs nor does it go out of it's way to get them. It finds much of it's humor in the mundane and the uneager delivery of some of the film's funniest lines make them even funnier.
The Weather Man is not perfect and it's not a great film. But it is a very good one that has been very underappreciated. A mainstream audience could never be expected to embrace the movie, but those looking for a genuinely unique, human comedy (a break from the big-budget, laugh-a-minute comedies, if you will) should be quite pleased.
GRADE: B+
Finally Cage showing his skills!
2009-07-22 - For me it was hard to decide to give this movie a shot mainly due to my absolute lack of appreciation of Nicolas Cage, not the least in his recent stint of trying the ropes of action hero! Michael Cain drew me to the movie as he seldomly disappoints - and he did not again even though his role was important rather than all dominant.
Nicolas Cage plays a faily succesfull Weather Man on TV where as Cain is his acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winning father. Cage is about to land his big break and possibly be picked as Weatherman on a national TV channel - the pinnacle of what his profession can offer him - with substantial salary and national 'fame' coming with it - but yet he is not feeling a success. He is yearning for his fathers approval but feels he is not accomplishing enough - far from it.
As he is moreover separated with two rather disfunctional children the movie follows him struggle to regain his selfworth in a very touching and at times humerous fashion. Cage fits the role brilliantly as did he a drunk in Leaving Las Vegas.... and it seems he should return to these type of roles more frequently. Cage is not typical Hollywood lead, he does not have the looks, the charm or the 'likebility' - what he does have is the anti hero gene, the well intended loser, the nerd etc. all roles he plays naturally with conviction.
This movie is more of an art film than a blockbuster and I guess the low ratings mostly come from those among Cage fans who actually like what the rest of us dont i.e. mindless action hero stuff without any cinematic substance or real life people. Only hero's and villains and good cups and bad guys... This movie contains neither.. only real people living real 'grey' lives and with actors doing a brilliant job depicting it.
Enjoy it! I did!
Refreshingly Original
2009-06-16 - The Bottom Line:
A quietly interesting drama with some moments of laugh-out-loud humor and good performances by Cage and Caine, The Weather Man is valuable most of all because it's just so different than your standard Hollywood film: it can't really be categorized aside from "drama" and I haven't seen any real comparable films.
3/4
