Nicolas Cage deserves points just for playing David Spritz, a Chicago TV weatherman who rubs people the wrong way. His fans hurl milkshakes at him. His ex-wife (Hope Davis) despises his hairy body. His father (Michael Caine), a Pulitzer-winning author, disdains David's lack of talent and ambition. His overweight daughter (Gemmenne De La Pena) recoils from his barely disguised contempt. His son (Nicholas Hoult) hates his neglect, which transfers into a near-disastrous encounter with a pedophile counselor (Gil Bellows). Cage works hard to find traces of humanity in a man that God forgot, as do screenwriter Steven Conrad and director Gore Verbinski. But in the face of a character no one cares about, can audiences be faulted for asking: Why should we?

“The Pretender”

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."