Spongebob Squarepants...makes a prominent appearance...however, as this movie is rated R, not many children under the age of twelve will ever see it, so this example of product placement is a waste of time.
Ultimately, I was underwhelmed and disappointed by "The Weather Man". The script has a good basic premise, but there´s too much unnecessary profanity. Also, the story never goes anywhere; the characters remain flat from beginning to end. The ambiguous/ambivalent ending seems brave for a Hollywood feature, but the artifice is so fake that you don´t buy it.
Video:
The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen video transfer does a wonderful job of reproducing the movie´s muted blues and grays. This is a strong, sharp transfer with rich dark colors. However, there are some black spots that are indicative of either print damage or of careless mastering.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 English track is surprisingly light on weather elements. The music score gets a lot of front-and-center attention--which isn´t a good thing because the music score is not so good and because sometimes, the music almost drowns out the characters´ voices.
You can also watch the movie with DD 2.0 surround English and DD 5.1 French tracks.
Optional English and Spanish subtitles as well as optional English closed captions support the audio.
Extras:
The DVD has five featurettes that cover various aspects of the production. The problem with these featurettes is that they are comprised of footage taking during principal photography. Therefore, none of the participants know what the final product will be, so a lot of the gassy praise and positivistic comments ring quite false after you´ve seen the movie.
"Extended Outlook: The Script", "Forecast: Becoming a Weatherman", "Atmospheric Pressure: The Style and Palette", "Relative Humidity: The Characters", and "Trade Winds: The Collaboration" all have self-explanatory titles. The best of these is "Trade Winds: The Collaboration", which focuses on how Gore Verbinski´s core team works with him on each effort. The discussion of editing is fairly useful to people who are interested in making their own movies.
Finally, you get the movie´s theatrical trailer as well as previews for other Paramount movies.
--Miscellaneous--
There´s nothing inside the keepcase other than the DVD.
Film Value:
Basically, "The Weather Man" is 101 minutes of people shouting profanity at each other and throwing food at Nicolas Cage. This gets monotonous after the first half hour. Archery is used poorly as an analogy/metaphor, and the synergistic use of Spongebob Squarepants is befuddling since Spongebob´s target audience isn´t likely to watch this movie. Cage´s performance is excellent, but the rest of "The Weather Man" is a mess in search of a purpose.
Video:
The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen video transfer does a wonderful job of reproducing the movie´s muted blues and grays. This is a strong, sharp transfer with rich dark colors. However, there are some black spots that are indicative of either print damage or of careless mastering.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 English track is surprisingly light on weather elements. The music score gets a lot of front-and-center attention--which isn´t a good thing because the music score is not so good and because sometimes, the music almost drowns out the characters´ voices.
You can also watch the movie with DD 2.0 surround English and DD 5.1 French tracks.
Optional English and Spanish subtitles as well as optional English closed captions support the audio.
Extras:
The DVD has five featurettes that cover various aspects of the production. The problem with these featurettes is that they are comprised of footage taking during principal photography. Therefore, none of the participants know what the final product will be, so a lot of the gassy praise and positivistic comments ring quite false after you´ve seen the movie.
"Extended Outlook: The Script", "Forecast: Becoming a Weatherman", "Atmospheric Pressure: The Style and Palette", "Relative Humidity: The Characters", and "Trade Winds: The Collaboration" all have self-explanatory titles. The best of these is "Trade Winds: The Collaboration", which focuses on how Gore Verbinski´s core team works with him on each effort. The discussion of editing is fairly useful to people who are interested in making their own movies.
Finally, you get the movie´s theatrical trailer as well as previews for other Paramount movies.
--Miscellaneous--
There´s nothing inside the keepcase other than the DVD.
Film Value:
Basically, "The Weather Man" is 101 minutes of people shouting profanity at each other and throwing food at Nicolas Cage. This gets monotonous after the first half hour. Archery is used poorly as an analogy/metaphor, and the synergistic use of Spongebob Squarepants is befuddling since Spongebob´s target audience isn´t likely to watch this movie. Cage´s performance is excellent, but the rest of "The Weather Man" is a mess in search of a purpose.
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[release]17483[/release]