Latest News

13 / 05 / 2012
Fantasy F1: The results from the fifth F1 race at Barcelona are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Monaco in two weeks on 27th May - cutoff for team edits is midnight GMT on Friday 25th.

30 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Results from Rally Argentina are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The next rally is in Greece and starts on 25th May. Cutoff for edits is midnight GMT on Thursday 24th May.

23 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Jari-Matti Latvala has been injured, so he is being replaced by Dani Sordo for Rally Argentina. If you have Latvala on your team, you'll automatically score for Sordo instead. Cutoff for edits for this weekend's rally is midnight GMT on Thursday 26th April.

22 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy F1: The results from the fourth F1 race at Bahrain are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Barcelona in three weeks on 13th May - cutoff for team edits is midnight GMT on Friday 11th.

15 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy F1: Now we have a few races under our belt, the weightings have been changed to reflect the early season performances - see the the league page to see what changed.

15 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy F1: The results from the third F1 race at China are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is (probably) Bahrain next weekend on 22nd April - cutoff for team edits is midnight GMT on Friday 20th.

02 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: The results have been updated to reflect Mikko Hirvonen's exclusion from Rally Portugal.

01 / 04 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Results from Rally Portugal are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The next rally is in Argentina and starts on 27th April. Cutoff for edits is midnight GMT on Thursday 26th April.

28 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Last call to pick a WRC Academy driver! Teams will be locked from midnight GMT on Thursday night - if you haven't picked one by then, you'll get Christopher Duplessis by default.

25 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy F1: The results from the second F1 race at Malaysia are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is China in 3 weeks on 15th April - cutoff for team edits is midnight GMT on Friday 13th.

18 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy F1: The results from the first F1 race at Australia are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Malaysia this coming weekend - cutoff for team edits is midnight GMT Friday.

15 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy F1: LAST DAY! Teams entered after midnight GMT tonight won't count for Melbourne - this is your last chance!

13 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Results from Rally Mexico are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The next rally is in Portugal and starts on 29th March. Remember to pick your Academy driver before then! Anyone who doesn't pick an Academy driver will by default get the first guy on the list - Christopher Duplessis.

05 / 03 / 2012
Fantasy F1: It's here! The 2012 Fantasy F1 championship is open for entries! Read the rules or dive straight in and Pick your team. You can change your mind as often as you like until midnight GMT on Thursday 15th March when teams will be frozen for the first race.

23 / 02 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: The Mexico entry list has arrived and is available on the rally page.

14 / 02 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Due to Mini's recent hoo-ha, if you have Mini as your WRC team, you will score for the Mini Portugal team instead (currently Araujo/Nobre) from Mexico onwards.

13 / 02 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Teams are open for editing again, though the entry list for Mexico isn't yet available.

12 / 02 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Results from Rally Sweden are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The next rally is in Mexico and starts on 8th March. Teams will reopen for editing on Monday.

23 / 01 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Teams are now open for editing again. Ogier and Mikkelsen are entered into Sweden in S2000 cars, but they're not eligible for the SWRC championship. You can choose them as WRC drivers for Sweden if you want.

22 / 01 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Results from the Monte are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. The second rally is in Sweden and starts on 9th Feb. Teams will be frozen at midnight GMT on the night of Thursday 9th Feb.

18 / 01 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: Rally teams are now frozen for the Monte. You can still pick a team and it will start scoring from Sweden on 9th Feb.

11 / 01 / 2012
Fantasy Rally: The 2012 Fantasy Rally season is now open for entries! Read the rules or dive straight in and pick a team. You can change your team as often as you like so you may as well create one now in case you forget later. Cutoff for the first race in Monte Carlo is midnight GMT on the night of TUESDAY 17th January.

27 / 11 / 2011
Fantasy F1: The results from the final F1 race at Brazil are in and the championship has been decided! Check the results or see how your team did. First race of 2012 is Australia on 18th March. Entries for the new season will open a week or two before that date.

14 / 11 / 2011
Fantasy Rally: Shock rally drama! Martin Semerad was excluded from the PWRC, so our results change too, which gives us a new champion! Check the results or see how your team did.

13 / 11 / 2011
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally GB are in and the season is over! Check the results or see how your team did. The 2012 season will be open for entries in early 2012 in time for Monte Carlo on 17th January.

The Weather Man

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Hope Davis, Nicholas Hoult, Gemmenne de la Peña. Directed by Gore Verbinski. Story: A TV weather guy with low spirits. Running Time: 1hr 41 minutes. UK Certificate 15.

The Weather Man is the unspoilt bay you stumble across when you're just out for a walk along the cliffs. Intricately crafted and beautifully written, you won't want to tell anyone about it in case they bring the kids.

I love this current trend of quiet movies. Broken Flowers, The Ice Harvest, Factotum - they're all understated masterpieces and this is one of the very best. Gore Verbinski, previously responsible for such eclectic fare as The Ring and Pirates of the Caribbean, takes a new direction with The Weather Man and demonstrates a warm and unorthodox style, reminiscent of the classic American Beauty in its slightly left-field presentation of American family life. It's funny and poignant in equal measure, its slow pace giving it character and warming us to the self-deprecating hero. Cage is hit by a flying flotilla of chicken McNuggets and we laugh and sympathise at the same time. It's brilliant, I love it.

I still don't rate Nicolas Cage very highly as an actor, but I must admit I do tend to enjoy his non-mainstream movies. He's getting better - although he's still heavy-handed with many of his physical mannerisms, he's good enough to be watchable as the browbeaten underachiever. Working with Michael Caine though, serves to show how far he has yet to go. Caine is a pearl in this movie, appearing only occasionally but lighting up the screen whenever he does. His deadpan discussion of the cameltoe (a rapidly emerging word if ever I heard one) is the stuff of movie legends and will stand watching and re-watching until the DVD wears out. Young Nicholas Hoult (from About a Boy) shows star quality too, beautifully underplaying his role as Cage's troubled son. The team of actors, writer and director co-operate perfectly to make what will probably be the movie of the month when it opens in early March.

The Weather Man is a wonderful movie for those of us who enjoy the journey more than the destination. No thrills and spills, just a carefully observed and wryly written story of an everyman who has fast food thrown at him in the street. These movies don't play for long, catch it while you can - you won't regret it.

I enjoyed this film: 5/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 4/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 1/5 - a quick flash of wobbling boob by an extra.

To enjoy this film you should: like American Beauty, Broken Flowers etc.

Your comments

The comments printed here are not necessarily the views of Forwardcharm!

Jimbo,

Just rented this movie over the weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Unlike you though, Nicholas Cage is one of my favorites. Since Valley Girl, I've enjoyed watching his movies.

George
George Lott