Pun Salad

IMDB billed this as a "black comedy". This means, in this case, "not actually funny." Let me explain:

Nicolas Cage plays Dave Spritz, Chicago TV weatherman. Dave earns big bucks, and is good at his job, but otherwise he's a mess. He's childish and narcissistic. He's separated from his shrewish wife, who despises him; his troubled son is seeing a pedophilic counselor as a result of pot use; his fat sullen daughter has taken up a cigarette habit; his respected and famous father (played by Michael Caine) is dying, which doesn't stop him from expressing his despondent disappointment over the trainwreck of his son's life.

There's no way this can be funny. But the filmmakers tossed in some bizarre plot elements. People routinely throw takeout fast food at Dave: Big Gulps, soft tacos, Wendy's Frosties, etc. In one of his continuing feeble attempts in drawing his daughter out, he signs her up for archery lessons. When it turns out that she's really only interested in archery as a means to killing animals, he drops her out of it and takes it up himself. He's in the running for the weather-guy spot on "Hello, America", a (fictional) network morning show helmed by Bryant Gumbel, who plays himself.

Also, Michael Caine is always pretty good. So there's about 1.5 stars worth of movie here.

But at the center, Dave is essentially unlikeable, and doesn't really change that much over the course of the movie. Ho hum. If you really want to see a movie about how a flawed TV weatherman turns his life around, there's Groundhog Day.