Why does Michael Caine keep popping up in small ungrateful roles as an American grandpa, unsuccessfully forging an American accent. Didn't he do the same thing in AROUND THE BEND (2004)? He's a great actor, I think he can afford it to pick his roles more carefully.
Nicolas Cage is David Spritz, "The Weatherman", from a local Chicago television station. He is a celebrity, he gets a big paycheck and he makes a chance of getting a job at a national TV-station in New York. Too bad his private life is a miserable failure. He's divorced, he has estranged himself from his children and his father (Caine) looks down on him. So (yawn), he tries to straighten his life and learns that taking a piece of the American Way or something, is the way to go after all, which is taking the job in New York and go for the money.
Admittedly, I've had a bit of an overdose of Nicolas Cage recently, he's everywhere. I reached a point where I cannot make a distinction anymore between his roles. Whether he plays a family man (in FAMILY MAN), an Ukranian arms dealer (in LORD OF WAR), or a con-man (in MATCHSTCK MEN), they all seem the same to me now. For some reason, there is a strange recent trend to shoot almost all Hollywood-movies in the same icy-cold blue lighting, which doesn't give this film any distinction in this department either.
The film definitely isn't the comedy it appears to be. Perhaps this was the maker's original intention, but the result is a dark, a very dark film. It definitely has it's moments with some of the most embarrassing scenes I've seen in a long time. David Spritz sometimes makes such a complete ass out of himself, I found it extremely painful to watch at times. Sadly, as mentioned, the other characters are flat and unappealing, most painful for Michael Caine who plays an especially unappealing character. The young Nicholas Hoult as David Spritz his son is a standout with a small but great part. Watch out for him, next teen idol and hopefully in acting, a harbor of things to come.
It was watchable, but maddeningly uneven. For a film with a "message", we've heard it all before, in better films.
Camera Obscura --- 5/10
Nicolas Cage is David Spritz, "The Weatherman", from a local Chicago television station. He is a celebrity, he gets a big paycheck and he makes a chance of getting a job at a national TV-station in New York. Too bad his private life is a miserable failure. He's divorced, he has estranged himself from his children and his father (Caine) looks down on him. So (yawn), he tries to straighten his life and learns that taking a piece of the American Way or something, is the way to go after all, which is taking the job in New York and go for the money.
Admittedly, I've had a bit of an overdose of Nicolas Cage recently, he's everywhere. I reached a point where I cannot make a distinction anymore between his roles. Whether he plays a family man (in FAMILY MAN), an Ukranian arms dealer (in LORD OF WAR), or a con-man (in MATCHSTCK MEN), they all seem the same to me now. For some reason, there is a strange recent trend to shoot almost all Hollywood-movies in the same icy-cold blue lighting, which doesn't give this film any distinction in this department either.
The film definitely isn't the comedy it appears to be. Perhaps this was the maker's original intention, but the result is a dark, a very dark film. It definitely has it's moments with some of the most embarrassing scenes I've seen in a long time. David Spritz sometimes makes such a complete ass out of himself, I found it extremely painful to watch at times. Sadly, as mentioned, the other characters are flat and unappealing, most painful for Michael Caine who plays an especially unappealing character. The young Nicholas Hoult as David Spritz his son is a standout with a small but great part. Watch out for him, next teen idol and hopefully in acting, a harbor of things to come.
It was watchable, but maddeningly uneven. For a film with a "message", we've heard it all before, in better films.
Camera Obscura --- 5/10