THE jury is out on Nicolas Cage.

Loved by many a leading lady and thousands of adoring female fans, there remains a growing crowd of boo boys out there who are just dying to see the wig-wearing, ex-husband of Lisa Marie Presley, nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, fail.

Well, he's a long way from that in this latest effort, starring as local TV weather man (the clue's in the title) Dave Spritz, and small town celebrity whose success on the small screen is somewhat of an antithesis to his failing private life.

Spritz is separated from his neurotic wife, Noreen, thanks to a distinct lack of enthusiasm in the bedroom (we are told in some colourful terms) and he's left with maintaining his relationship with his teenage children, a nave 15-year-old boy, Mike, and an overweight 12-year-old girl, Shelly, on a weekend/spare time basis.

The only other real relationship in Dave's life is with his father, Robert, a rather under used Michael Caine, who's deteriorating health provides a real watershed in Dave's mid-life crisis.

This is basically a film about a middle-aged man going though a mid-life crisis and if and how he is going to come out the other side.

It's not a bad little film, and quite quirkily directed by Gore Verbinski, it's got the pedigree to be good. I just felt that Cage was somewhat miscast in the lead role.

If you think of Kevin Spacey in American Beauty and indeed Cage himself in The Family Man, then you'll see where this film falls a very definite notch or two short of the mark.

One for a rainy Saturday afternoon methinks.