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Visitors Review

Amy Adler 2012-05-25 08:32:52

Weathering life's tempests is not for sissies, as this dark-but-worthy film aptly shows; do NOT see it if you are easily depressed

David Spritz (Nicolas Cage) is an affable weather reporter on localChicago television. He is well liked and may even be in the running fora bigger gig on a national morning show out of NYC. However, away fromthe cameras, things are very different. For one, David's father, RobertSpritzer (Michael Caine) is a famous writer who has cast enormousfootprints for his son to follow. Now, news comes that his dad isseriously ill. In addition, David is divorced from his beautiful wife,Noreen (Hope Davis) and has trouble connecting with his children,teenage Michael (Nicholas Hoult) and twelve year old Shelley. Shelley,especially, is a point of concern, for she is slightly overweight andthe object of school bullies, on occasion. Although David tries toignite her interest in hobbies, such as archery, Shelley remains veryaloof. It is, in fact, Robert, who has the better relationships withhis granddaughter, grandson, and ex-daughter-in-law. Therefore, whileDaivd continues to let a smile be his umbrella, on the news, he isjuggling major problems with his family AND pursuing the chance to be abigtime weatherman on a national show. Will he be able to maintain hissanity? This is a dark, dark film, in the vein of American Beauty, but,alas, not quite as good or cohesive as that Oscar-winning movie.However, Cage, as usual, does an excellent job as the very mixed-uplocal television star and, be still dear hearts, he looks veryhandsome. The rest of the cast is also superlative in their difficultroles, especially Caine as the highly intelligent and refined author.The scenery in and around Chicago is mostly bleak, as the film takesplace in winter while the costuming and camera work are excellent.Thus, the film's deficiencies stem mostly from an uneven script and avery slow-moving pace. Yet, despite this, the movie has some sharpobservations to make about the human condition. If you are in adepressed mood, DO NOT see this one, as it can lay low the mostoptimistic of folks. But, if you are a fan of Cage, Caine, or the othercast members or if you have a yen to ponder the dark side of life, thisflick does offer much food for thought, indeed.

sathanic 2012-05-25 02:44:08

A making out movie ...

Yeah , that's exactly what it is ! I actually went to the cinema to seethis one , as there was a long time since i did that . What can i say ,it was the wrong movie to go to the cinema for and i felt sorry for themoney spent on the ticket and as well felt sorry for those minuteslost. I seriously don't know what was in Cage's mind when he acceptedto play that role , of course he's a good actor and usually some actorsmake the whole movie worth it , but not this time , not this script !The story of a man searching for success , searching for a better life? actually i didn't even botter to follow the plot line. The real thingto follow in the cinema was the high number of couples who came thereto watch the movie and ended up kissing and making out like there wasno tomorrow ... That's when i realized that this movie ISN'T WORTH IT !Everybody was enjoying the atmosphere of the cinema ... at least that !My conclusion , DON'T even botter !

semi_cool18 2012-05-24 11:34:57

Empty and Pointless

I don't get Gore Verbinski. He has shown himself to be a decentdirector (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Ring) who has not yet reachedhis full potential. Why then, would he come out with something likeWeather Man, taking him completely in the wrong direction? Weather Man is the drab story of "weather man" Dave Spritz (NicolasCage), who is playing his stock character: the pathetic, stuttering,socially inept and boring every-man. This kind of role worked inAdaptation, but honestly, how much longer can Cage play the same roleand get away with it? The problem I have with this movie is that it'slacking the warm heart at its core that other movies like this have.I'm not asking for a shallow and heart-warming holiday movie here,either- although that would've been nice compared to this. But I thinkthat movies about the struggle of life and one person's coming to gripof his reality can be both sad and uplifting at the same time. SamMendes's American Beauty was a story about the American life(hm,covering the exact same ground as Weather Man), and how peoplechange in it. The story is tragic and often sad, yet at the same timerecognizes the beauty that is everywhere around us. Weather Man takessome of these ideas, except without the beauty. It is drab, sad, andmost surprisingly, dirty.(Cage and his wife talk about the lack ofenthusiasm with BJs, his young daughter Shelly is called "camel toe" atschool, and his son is molested by his counselor, not to mention thecountless needless F--- words.) I have no problem with mature contentin films, but this gratuitous and unnecessary show made the story allthe more sad and juvenile. But I digress.The movie is classified as drama/comedy, but it wasn't funny. I believeI chuckled (very softly) once in the movie. And that part was a scenethat was in the trailer.Weather Man left me feeling hollow and unfinished, like there was stillsomething the story had to tell. Verbinski's movie had the one half ofreality - the sadness, the struggle, and the realization of one's self,but lacked the other - the fact that in the struggle is beauty andhope. At the end of the movie I had no hope for the characters.

2012-05-23 21:11:31

Just Awful

I suppose that people that are such indepth movie lovers, the ones that remember directors names, movies everyone has been in, etc. might get something technical out of this film. But movies interest me because they are entertaining. A good story. This is neither.It's depressing & full of family misery. Whatever "artistic" value is lost on me, and would not recommend it to anyone that is seeking entertainment or simply a good story.

zoelwill 2012-05-17 13:24:45

Desperately tries to be clever and insightful, but doesn't quite achieve it

The trailer for "The Weatherman" is particularly deceptive, the amusingmoments used in it are in fact the only ones that occur in the filmitself, and viewed in context, aren't funny anyway, merely saddening.The music used in the trailer actually appeared very little in thefilm, instead a ticking clock sound is used, though meant to show themonotony of life etc, gets pretty annoying rather quickly.The film follows Dave Spritz's (Nicholas Cage) life and career, whichhe finds unfulfilling and the problems with his family. The actors areall very good in the film, Nicholas Hoult (about a boy) is veryconvincing as a troubled teenager and his American accent is faultless.This film is unusual in its lack of comedy, romance and action. Thesedo not necessarily have to be negative traits, however the filmattempts to make clever points about life, yet never quite succeeds.The film appears to lack any specific resolution, leaving youunsatisfied at the end. I really do not recommend seeing it on yourbirthday, as I did, or at any other time if you can help it.

2012-05-17 02:21:14

Audience should appreciate

Living in the times of King-Kong and Live or die trying. I am thankful that a film like this exists. It is heartwarming and displays a higher sense of humor lacking in most movies. I think that the problem is the subject. People want Nick Cage to go crazy. Take the arrow and shoot someone in the head. But the film isn't about that. Let me put it this way. If you have lost a father this movie will speak to you. If you lost a father and you are from Chicago this movie screams at you. I think that to appreciate a movie like this a person has to tell that critic in them to shut the hell up and enjoy the beauty of this film. Maybe its problem is that it is to specific but to be honest this is what I love about the movie. Its Nick Cages best work.Its daring and funny as hell. Check this out don't just ignore it because of bad reviews. Most folks will say it is a movie about Nick Cage and his family problems. But the way that this is done makes it awesome.

2012-05-07 02:59:33

Not Exactly What You Expect

This movie, in my opinion, has been way overrated. To tell you the truth, I didn't really care for it at all. It's not what you might expect of Nicholas Cage. While the plot was somewhat good, the acting was very poor, and it was a very slow paced film. It just didn't keep my interest, and I am very sorry to have to leave this kind of feedback, but let's face it: the film was just not what you expected to be after all the media hype. Do feel free to disagree, however, I feel this is the proper score that is deserved.

2012-05-06 16:54:05

Kinda Boring

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2012-05-04 15:05:29

Like watching a train wreck

The Weather Man is not a movie in the traditional sense. David Spritz is not a traidtional protagonist, pitted against some struggle that he will eventually overcome. Rather, from the beginning, we see that his life is a never ending struggle. His marriage has failed. He lives in the shadow of his much more successful father and his children are growing distant, as they deal with their own troubles.The makers of this film could have easily made this somewhat formulaic, with Cage's character learning from his mistakes and becoming a better human being because of that. Ultimately, at the end, he may have learned something. That is for the viewer to decide. Along the way though, we clearly see through Cage's sparse narrations and his interactions with the people around him that he lives in an illusion, cotinually making vain attempts to please his father and win over his ex-wife and children.The Weather Man does not follow a typical film narrative. Rather, we follow Cage's Spritz through as he stumbles, rises a bit, and falls much more. Writer Steven Conrad and director Gore Verbinski are interested in how Spritz fails and why he thinks the way he does. That the film follows Spritz so closely causes us to root for him in spite of his failures.This is a beautiful, overlooked character study that many people turned their back on during its initial release. It's Cage at his best. It's Cage doing low self esteem as he did so well in Adaptation. The character is very human, and while the situations in the film may not ring true with every viewer, there's a part of Spritz that all of us grapple with at one time or another.

2012-05-04 01:50:44

It has its merits, but seemed targeted for a small, niche viewer.

Initially I was afraid that The Weather Man would be just like The Family Man, and not just in title. In the former, Nic Cage plays a man with a successful career and an unsuccessful family life. In the latter, Nic Cage plays a man with a successful career and no family life to speak of. The Family Man is about that successful business man realizing there is more to life than his career. And I was afraid I would get that same plot line here, but I didn't. Frankly, the story in The Weather Man was almost the exact opposite. Nic Cage's character is a very good weatherman, but he feels that he doesn't make the people around him happy by being a weatherman, so he overcompensates until he alienates everyone in his life. He hardly knows his two children and struggles to find ways to relate to them. He tries to get back into his ex-wife's good graces, but always seems to screw things up. That made the movie frustrating to watch, but the part played to Cage's personality very well. I read some reviews that praised Cage, but while I thought it was a good part for him, I was not blown away. The movie got progressively better and I think it ended very well and saved what could have been a trainwreck of a movie. As it started out, the movie seemed to struggle within itself. Was it a light-hearted family story as the simplistic writing and short scenes suggested? Or was it a very perverse coming-of-age story with an older-than-usual protagonist where the only thing more prevalent than inappropriate adult situations were f-bombs? These were the two phases to the movie, essentially early and late. Once it moved away from that early phase, The Weather Man was easier to watch. It got better over time, but suffice to say that it isn't a movie I would recommend anyone take a family to see. The Weather Man was a bizarre film, but that ended up being part of the attraction for me. I really liked analysis Cage's character did on himself and there were maybe a small handful of scenes where the writing and direction teetered near genius (primarily the whole inclusion of archery). The movie was flawed -- I won't try to deny that -- but all in all I found it a positive viewing experience. However, I have a hard time seeing anyone liking this movie except 20- 30-something males who are looking for a change-of-pace movie.

True Art 2012-05-03 16:33:30

Dysfunctional family - and movie

I rarely walk out of films and I never expected to walk out on this oneI promote films for the studios for a living so I understand howtrailers and advertising works, and I certainly was fooled intothinking this was a comedy -- so if you're expecting a comedy, wait forDVD or if you have a really really dark sense of humor and enjoywatching a clueless lead character doing clueless things one afteranother -- without being all that funny -- this is the film for you!Having not seen the ending -- and without breaking spoiler rules -- Ican only guess that this schlub has some sort of revelation andcharacter growth in the end, but it was just too long and protracted ofa toothache to get there, despite the great performances by allinvolved

greenlady1 2012-05-02 20:18:31

one of the better movies i've seen recently...

...and i work at a movie theater and i see a lot of movies! this is onei would've actually paid for if i had to.i just watched it and so it hasn't quite settled yet. yes folks, thisis a thinking movie. it's about imperfect people in imperfectsituations and how life just plain sucks and doesn't go right. nicholascage plays David spritz, a chicago weather man who is separated fromhis wife and children. he does what he can to try and reconcile withhis wife, and to reconnect with his children, however completelymisguided some of those attempts may be. but he does try, and he reallywants it to happen. he's a good person, and he loves his family.there is also a very strong father-son relationship with michael caine,who has a few "pearls of wisdom" for his son. thankfully, they weredelivered with no pomp and circumstance and dramatic music. caine was anice balance to the random chaotic happenings in the family, oftenquestioning his son's actions and words, such as, "what is all thissucking and chucking?" and walks away, still muttering about it.and yes, there is a lot of the "f word" which i guess some people thinkwas random and senseless and stupid. but i think it was necessary,especially with David's son's interactions with his counselor, and thecounselor was swearing to "relate" to the teenager. also, when David,noreen, and russ were in the front lawn, and David became angry andstarted cursing and yelling insults at russ. of course he's swearing,he's upset that his wife is moving on with somebody else and thatsomebody else is playing father to his kids and he's angry! maybe somepeople don't swear, but others do. and if you paid attention to therating, you'll realize it's rated R for strong language. it does saythat. so if you are offended by that, don't go see the movie. besides,i think most of the shock is that it's mainly upper middle class whitepeople saying it, not teenagers (just his kids a couple of times) organg members or hookers or whatever.i found this movie to be real. it doesn't have a specifically mappedout plot and the characters are all flawed. nobody's a hero in thisone. i see it as a snapshot of the life of an ordinary guy who is at aturning point. however, the ending felt a little too neatly wrapped up.other than that, i enjoyed it. i felt connected to the characters and iwanted to know what was going to happen. i smiled when he took hisoverweight 12 year old daughter clothes shopping in new york and shewas twirling and posing for the mirror because she looked really good.and when his 15 year old son was having dinner at his counselor's home,i wanted to yell at him to not take his shirt off and let the guy takepictures of him.i definitely recommend this movie.

bobbobwhite 2012-05-01 16:57:43

Successful doofus, just like real life...not!

Nick Cage's lead character Dave Schnitz the Weatherman didn't bringintellectual depth to his job, but why should he? He was just a goofyread-from-the-prompter TV weather reader with a smarmy "Schnitz'sNipper" gimmick(his pick for the coldest day of the week)as hisgreatest contribution. But, a well paid weather reader he was, and alsowas someone who wanted like the dickens to get his separated familyback to the way it was when he was probably more miserable living withit. His new life appeared to me to be better than arguing all the timeas before. Why want that life again? He had a very good paying TV job"working" two hours a day....what most of us wouldn't give for theoptions that job would give us? But, Dave was miserable even so anddidn't know how well off he was. It was once again that silly filmstory about some people not knowing how good they have it so they workharder to improve on it but actually harm it even more than doingnothing.Dave had a unique knack for irritating his separated wife with all hisdumb attempts to try to get his family back, but each new attemptfailed worse than the last and drove her further away from him. Funnyhow movie fantasy always shows these ineffectual types to be sosuccessful in their work, with others always giving them exaggeratedtolerance, attention and acclaim, but all the ones like this I know arereal no-account people with lives full of troubles. Hoo-ray forHollywood, I guess. Not realistic at all, but the concept did make forsome half-funny, but contrived, scenes along the way such as the crude"camel toe" running joke. However, the excessive, hammering use ofcrude and gross sexual slang in nearly all scenes was not at allnecessary to the story, but that unfortunate development seems to bethe method du jour for film comedy these days and mores the pity forthat. Michael Caine as Dave's talented and successful father was great asalways and the best thing in the film for his quiet and patienttolerance of his doofus son's dumb approach to all things normal andsensible. He was always calmly and lovingly trying, without muchsuccess, to get angry dork Dave to see a smarter way of living his lifebut had very little luck with that, and also subsequently with his ownlife due to terminal cancer.Dave's obese, dumb and whiny daughter made me wonder again why peoplehave kids these days, my kids included. It reminded me that we all tryso hard with them but about 90% of our efforts are mostly useless andare certainly no fun for them or us, and no more than about 10% oftheir entire teenage years are rewarding to us or them. But, still wetry so hard, mainly because they are part of us and we just can't giveup as we do love them and have high hopes they will turn out right inthe end. Dave did that very same thing, over and over with littlesuccess, but his often lame and laborious efforts with his daughter didpay off some toward the end. It must work better in Hollywood than inreal life. Duhhhh.The story was very contrived, lame, and forced at times, especiallywith Cage's part, but was more or less effective overall in tellingDave's story as the surrounding characters were well cast andconvincing. I guess Nick Cage did OK, but many others would have beenmuch funnier, like Steve Martin, John Cusack or Bill Murray, of course.Wow, Bill Murray in that role would have been magic!This was truly a summer weight movie but was released in thefall/winter due to the harsh weather that was central to the story.Anyone who thought this was a terrific movie, like the very firstreviewer here, please stay out of my life.

heathermac64 2012-05-01 06:59:27

Excellent! Well done, concise...

I agree, this is a movie you either love or hate... in my case I lovedit. Mind you I have a quirky taste in movies,so it may not be foreveryone. I also must comment that it was cast really well despite thelack of main stream appeal. It is absolutely a movie I would go seeagain, mostly for Nic Cage carrying the bow and arrow through thestreets!Plus you cannot help but love the melancholic overtones and thegiant spongebob hoovering outside of the hotel window. It acts almostas a parody of life behind the script, outside of the view of thecamera lens... a weatherman's life may seem perfect, he's got the moneybut in reality it is far from it.

plantgeorge 2012-04-30 08:34:40

Is there a point in this film ?

I really just can't get what all the fuss is about.How is it possible to make a film of 2hours long without any realinterest ? The acting performances isn't at his worst.Nicolas cage is far from being a great actor, I must say in this filmthe performance isn't that bad.But among all thing's, this movie lakes in thought. It has no point,some crape film's make you laugh how bad their are but here it is ...that is his problem there is just nothing to say about it because it isjust an empty film.Juste a huge wast of time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mstasty 2012-04-29 13:49:14

Local undereducated weather man wonders what his worth is, and if he can make more money and therefore make his existence beneficial.

Boooooooorrrrrring. Wow, I can't believe they spent over twenty dollarsmaking this movie, and I can't believe I spent five renting it. MaybeI'm just sick to death of the "let's feel sorry for the upper-middleclass who don't know why they exist" movies. This is a plight betterleft unsung. Who feels sorry for these people? I felt guilty watchingthis while children are starving, selling their bodies, being killedand this man is whining about the fact that he is not as smart as hisfather. Why didn't they make a movie about his father then? It wouldhave been more interesting, at least the Michael Caine character won aNobel. The characters were under-developed, profanity was unjustified,and I felt cheated by the commercials which portrayed this movie as acomedy. IT IS NOT FUNNY IN THE LEAST. Do not watch this movie whileoperating heavy machinery.

antoniotierno 2012-04-29 00:52:06

brilliant

This is a strange film but considering that everybody all over theworld might undergo an emotional and spiritual crisis it will beinteresting to see Nicholas Cage (actor belonging to the category of"great stars") playing a success man during his post mid-life crisis.Francis Ford Coppola's nephew had already played this role - I remember"Matchstick Man" and "The Family man" and also this time succeeds inacting very convincingly. He's superb in rendering David's confusionand describing this really engrossing character who makes us smile withhis anxieties. Gore Verbinski (The curse of the black pearl, Pirates ofthe Caribbean) is also a guarantee.

Tricky2000 2012-04-29 00:10:56

An apparently successful middle-aged weather man struggles to come to terms with his life as a 'grown-up'

I loved this film! DO NOT be mislead by the trailer. It's not, as theywould have you believe, some 'LA-Story-esque' slapstick. This is adarkly evocative and insightful examination of one mans journey toreconcile his youthful aspirations of the man he wanted to be, with theman he has become. Hmm, doesn't sound like much fun when it's put likethat, but it is. Cage is great as Dave Spritz. I can't believe I usedto think he was a bit rubbish ('Adaptation' changed my mind, and thiscements it further). He manages to evince plenty of humour from hischaracter without ever going for the easy laugh, and he balances thisbeautifully with the pathos of a man who is struggling so desperatelyto come to terms with who he is. The scene where he chucks a snowballat his ex-wife captures this brilliantly.There isn't much not to like about the film (unless you fell for thetrailer, then you may think you are watching the wrong one). It issolidly written and moves at an insistent pace whilst never rushing.It's refreshing to see a Hollywood film whose entire story you can'twork out from the first few scenes, and 'The Weather Man' keepssurprising you to the end.This isn't to say it's is without flaws. Spritze's own attempts to'accept the things he cannot change' are mirrored by theunpredictability of attempting to forecast the weather. Great plotmotif, but it just wasn't necessary to represent weather forecasting assuch 'pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey' guesswork. Also, the gravitasdisplayed by his father (Michael Caine) is laid on just a little toothick. Could he really be that wise and dignified? Its little thingslike make this a very good film, rather than a great one.If there's a down side, it's that I found the film heart warming,uplifting and ultimately positive. This bothers me as it's centralmessage seems to be that the route to happiness is accepting you'llnever be what you wanted to be. This dichotomy however, sums up thewhole film and makes it one of the best (and best hidden) Hollywoodofferings I've seen for a while.

lupineursus 2012-04-25 09:19:33

Howz the Weather out there?

Howz the weather out there? We see them everyday, day in, day out. Weridicule them, pray to them, love them, hate them. They are icons ofsociety. They pack 'em into a closet until they are ready to feed usour obsessions. They are not real to us. This movie shows a small slicethat life isn't just the blue screen. I found this movie a search formeaning and love in a very surreal world. It gives us vignettes, littlesnapshots in the life of a TV celebrity and his struggle to separatelife from illusion. It's called a comedy in some circles, acomedy/drama in others. Yes, there is humor in it, but it's not acomedy. It's a bitter sweet slice of life. So many of us leaddesperately unsatisfying lives. This movie moved me very much. So, howis the weather in your neck of the woods? Tune in and find out.

2012-04-24 17:17:38

"Easy" doesn't enter into grown-up life.

There is no other working actor out there who would better convince you that a guy with a lucrative job that only takes him 2 hours a day, pays 240K a year , makes him some sort of local celebrity (which is quite big considering that locale is Chicago, IL) and gives him the prospect of even more spectacular job for the morning show "Hello America" in NYC, may be as depressed, self-loathing, and confused as Nicolas Cage in the role of David Spritz, the TV Weather Man, and the main character of Gore Verbinsky's 2005 often sad and dark but frank, insightful, and ultimately funny comedy. I believe that the movie was grossly mis-advertised and its trailer pulled the clips out of the content to give a potential viewer the idea of the slapstick comedy with many laughs that come from Cage been thrown at all kinds of fast food by his anti-fans. What some viewers did not expect to see - a somber, dreary and grey looking film and the characters that match the film visual palette perfectly. We will follow David Sprith on the streets of Windy City of Chicago during one never-ending rainy and showy winter while he tries to reconnect with his estranged wife, to understand better his 12-years-old daughter and a teenager son and to get closer to his Pulitzer Prize winner father (Michael Caine), "the national treasure" by the words of President Carter who is dying from lymphoma. The film explores aging, loneliness, longing, emotional crises, and self doubt and more than once brings to mind John Cheever's observation: "The main emotion of the adult American who has had all the advantages of wealth, education, and culture is disappointment." There are a lot of disappointments, regrets and unhappiness in the characters of "The Weather Man", especially its main character, David Spritz but the film is not depressing or hopeless thanks to the finesse and artistry of Cage's performance and to his very unique low key dry humor with which he provides the insights in his character's inner world. "The Weather Man" is one of the movies that use voiceover effectively and along with Cage, the writer Steve Conrad should be credited for providing the hilarious stream of thought. One of the David's silent monologues, "Tartar sauce", is so incredibly funny and masterful that James Joyce himself would've rejoiced had he heard it. Michael Caine deserves equal praise for depth, irony, and a lot of heart that he brings in the role of David's father whose approval David always craved. The last scene between Caine and Cage reminded me of the similar scene between Marlon Brando and Al Pacino in "The Godfather" - not because the characters were similar but by its emotional impact and perfect chemistry between two actors. 3.5/5 or 7/10