Twister

Rating:
Summary: Storm Chasers Extraordinare
Review: This movie must have gotten Storm Chasers a real boost. Just as more and more videos of twisters appeared on nightly TV in the 90s this movie came out.

One thing this movie is though it is an great introduction, in a bit of a farcical way to the science of tornados. This season of twisters has been very devastating and with so many storm chasers today, there are even what they call 'chaser jams' as the cars load the roads. Unlike the competition in the movie for who will get the best view, there is a courtesy.

However, this movie has great special effects, the cow in the air scene was somewhat comical. Touching was the scene of the destruction of a friends house, and horrifying was the scene just prior to it of a twister hitting a drive-in theater.

Hunt and Paxton work together well in this movie. The attempt to outrun the category 5 at the end was a bit unreal, yet you are on the edge of your seat as the 1/2 a mile wide funnel gets ever closer.

I have purchased this movie as a gift for friends and have it on my want list for the future.

Rating:
Summary: Air Out Your TV Room After This One
Review: Lord love you, what a lousy film! This must be on the short list of the worst American films of the 1990's; and the more money and special effects they threw at the moronic script the worse it got. Helen Hunt was so great in her TV show "Mad About You" that the public was apparently ready to cut her a lot of slack, and she used it all in this stinker. A production of Steven Spielberg's dim-witted associates, it's basically "Jaws," only with a tornado instead of a shark. Not a single believable scene, word of dialogue, or point of contact with the real world of meteorology. Beware.

Rating:
Summary: Good Movie
Review: Special effects are a bit weak, and it is a little dummed down, but this movie will bring back memories for anyone who has been through this kind of weather catastrophe. It captures the emotions of a real life disaster, life or death situations.

It brought back memories of the Oakfield tornado in FDL County, Wisconsin...a weather event I covered for the Fond du Lac radio station KFIZ. Helen Hunt is excellent in this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Great Action
Review: This is a great movie. If you like neatural disaster action movies, you should def. watch this! Not that fond of Helen Hunt, but the actual movie gets over the sheer horrid that she is.

Rating:
Summary: Twirls as fast as Stevie Nicks
Review: All of us know what a tornado(twister) does: it spins round and around as fast as singer/songwriter, Stevie Nicks! So it is only appropriate she composed a tune for the soundtrack of this great movie!Helen Hunt and Bill Paxon lead an all star cast about a married couple to be divorced, only their love for "storm chasing" tornados brings them back together.The love bit fits perfectly in this heart pounding action film.The Tornados look amazingly real. Top notch special effects. (The scene with the cow you'll never forget)The film keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire film, from the very start of the film.This film is a much deserved box office blockbuster, and even though this film is fantastic and grossed millions of dollars, thankfully, no sequals were made, as I think some films should stand on there own.In the summer of 1996, this was my fave flick! Never boring, always exciting, with a theme(tornados) not previously used for a "summer blockbuster" intended flick.And the icing on the cake?The great soundtrack(Van Halen, Rusted root, Goo Goo Dolls) which is highlighted by the song, "Twisted," written for this movie by rock legend, Ms. Stevie Nicks, and performed by Stevie Nicks her ex lover(and re-united Fleetwood Mac member), Mr. Lindsey Buckingham!!WOW! A GREAT movie and STEVIE NICKS as well!Like I said, this movie is a TWIRLING, rockin' good time!

Rating:
Summary: Forget the plot and wait for the special effect twisters
Review: Some movies are made as excused to play with special effects, which is a pretty good explanation for "Twister." This film was basically sold to the American public on the basis of two special effects shots in the trailer: a tornado demolishing a barn plank by plank and a tire heading right through a windshield at the camera. The latter was not in the film, but that was beside the point. In 1939 Arnold Gillespe used a stocking to terrify children for the rest of the century with the tornado in "The Wizard of Oz." In 1996 "Twister" intended to up the ante with computerized effects (of course there are lots of homages to the previous film, with "Dorothy" being the name of the tornado device that measures the wind speeds of the tornado and the cow blowing around in the air just like what Dorothy saw out her window when her twister lifted up the house).

Director Jan de Bont was making his second film after the smash hit "Speed," so basically he needed some action. But the script by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin decides to overload the script with melodramatic elements. Helen Hunt plays Dr. JoAnne "Jo" Thorton-Harding, who has been chasing tornadoes ever since the night one of them took her daddy away. Her scientific purpose is to study them so that meterologists can make more accurate predictions and warn people in time to save lives, but obviously she has deep psychological demons driving her as well. This is one of the reasons that her husband, William Harding (Bill Paxton) is trying to get her to sign divorce papers. He is hoping to build a new life with Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jamie Gertz), but being able to study tornadoes in peace without Jo going crazy would be nice too. But if Helen Hunt wants to see what the inside of a tornado looks like, then that is what she should get to do. Besides, even Melissa knows that Jo and Bill still love each other.

If this was not enough to give a whole new dimension to what is already an exciting proposition (these people want to chase tornadoes; what more do you need to get excited about in a movie?), the script sets up the "good" tornado chasers, including Philip Seymour Hoffman as Dustin Davis and Alan Ruck as Robert "Rabbit" Nurick, and the "bad" tornado chasers, led by Dr. Jonas Miller (Cary Elwes), who is more interested in corporate sponsorship and television specials than in the holy grail of pure scientific research. The "bad" guys even drive black vehicles in precision formations, while the "good" guys drive vehicles that each have to have at least 100,000 miles on them.

Consequently we have personal and professional circumstances that drive these people to put themselves in the path of oncoming hurricanes, which is, ultimately, the whole point of the movie. "Twister" is not about a single hurricane, but several, all apparently different, with the biggest and baddest of them all, the Level 5 "Finger of God," coming at the end. You have to be impressed that not only our hero and heroine survive these tornadoes, but that the script manages to make it reasonable that their lives are imperiled repeatedly in this film. That is what makes this a fun film, because even if the plot is on the level of a theme park ride, the special effects come fast and furious. Just think Tornadoes 5 (three levels of meaning there, people), Plot 3, and "Twister" grades out at a 4.

Final Note: At some point in the past the ratings board decided that saying a movie was PG-13 was not enough information for warning parents. The PG-13 rating for "Twister" is "for intense depiction of very bad weather." I leave you to ponder what a film would have to show in terms of bad weather to warrant an R rating (or higher).

Rating:
Summary: if have the interests to the nature phenomenons,syould watch
Review: Unexpectedly for the reviews of few stars, I am surprised. Certainly the general people that have not have many knowledge for the nature phenomenons may be a little bore. But though I am Japanese, I am very interested to the nature phenomenons so that have gotten to Japanese weather forecast licence. The person like me will have many interests to watch this movie.

In fact, in Japan the tornades do not break out. But hurricane(Japanese name Taifuu) is very important disasters in Japan. Certainly Taifuu is bad things that break the disaster, but on the other hand, as Tifuu approached to Tokyo(my address) I used to have felt the excitments. Though it is not the apt remark, I can understand the cast feeling of this movie that as tornads approach to their site, they get the exitements.

When the people that are not interested to such phenomenons look at the person that dive into the tornads without the caution to oneself life, may be you will think that such person is crazy. But I can understand the emotion of the person that dive into little. Especialy in Japan it is famouse thing that very storong Taifuu approach. Now even when I involve to such situations, I care to such scale or wind speed, the pressure etc.

This movie may lack as the point of the story, and for the veteran movie watcher such movies lacking the story may be no. But if watch in the pure point that enjoy the exciting phenomenons and so on honestly, the movie may be good thing.

Thank you for reading poor English.

Rating:
Summary: Bogus! Sorry Plot, Thin Acting...
Review: With the advent of advanced CGI, films like 'Twister' were bound to happen. This is a prime example of effects dominating a movie; the actors and plot are mere appendages. I didn't care for DeBont's previous film, 'Speed' either-substitute stunts for decent plot in that one. The whole premise of 'Twister' is bogus: stormchasers run around after tornadoes, with the leader's (Bill Paxton) difficulties with his wife (Helen Hunt) as a sorry subplot. The chasers conveniently manage to run into several tornadoes in a very short period of time, which is pretty farfetched. Real stormchasers will tell you it is very difficult indeed to get close to a single funnel cloud, let alone a bunch of them as portrayed in this film. This movie is evidence that filmgoer objectivity is deteriorating along with the product; if audiences consider this a 'great' movie, it means they don't think of plot and acting as really important-only trees, cows, etc. flying around via CGI effects. If you want to see a really good movie about a natural disaster, try 'The River' with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek-it has decent acting along with the destruction.

Rating:
Summary: Twister Has Great Special Effects!
Review: Being a fan of Helen Hunt ever since I was a child and she was a child actor I watched Twister when we rented the video and having watched a lot of disaster movies in the 70's I was excited when they started making new disaster movies in the 90's and Twister was good, well the special effects were great and the acting was fine but like most disaster movies the dialogue can get a little cheesy and the plot can get a little bogged down but anyway it's the special effects that really make these types of movies good and I recommend Twister to fans of disaster movies and special effects!

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining update to an old story
Review: "Twister" is a remake of the 1940 Cary Grant/Rosalind Russell classic "His Girl Friday," with the estranged couple playing tornado-hunting meteorologists instead of aggressive newspaper reporters. The emphasis of this film, not surprisingly, is more on the special effects than the dynamic between the two leads. Jami Gertz takes on the role of the "third wheel" in the relationship, the part played by Ralph Bellamy 60 years ago.

The special effects are good, and more importantly, it's an entertaining movie. Sure, you have to suspend your disbelief a few times, but it's worth seeing if you're looking for an interesting diversion that doesn't get too deep.