Forecast looks bad for Cage

There are only two good weather-man jokes and Steve Martin stole them both in LA Story. So, as divorced father, inadequate son and terminal adolescent Dave in The Weather Man, Nicolas Cage is obliged to put up with passers-by who pelt him with fast food, which is about as funny as, yep, the weather report.

Dave's kids are dysfunctional, his ex (Hope Davis, again) hates him and his paragon of a father (Michael Caine, disconcertingly believable as a perfect patriarch despite his dodgy American accent) is terminally ill.

But no matter - Dave believes all will be well if he just gets a prestigious, stupidly well-paid job on national TV. Dave - who strains hard if ineptly for maturity - is an obvious candidate for our sympathy. But he is such a gurning, misguided fool that he never manages to intercept it.

The Weather Man
Cert: 15