Twister

Rating:
Summary: DVD: Nice picture, Great Sound, Horrible story
Review: A good rent & watch once just for the DVD sound (assuming you have a good reciever & subwoofer), but the story is insipid and unrealistic. END

Rating:
Summary: It's as unrealistic as the critics say
Review: I waited for "Twister" to come out on video because the critics said it was unrealistic (twisters coming down in specific, predictable spots). I just had to see it because everyone recommended it highly. But upon seeing, I realized the critics were right. Not only are the actions of the twister unrealistic, but so are the villain's actions--a monotous roaming band of motorcars. Hunt's character, driven by the death of her parents at the hands of a twister, seems unrealistic and too one-track minded for an actress of her caliber to portray. Paxton didn't seem to add much as the leading male. His best performance to date I think is HBO's "A Bright Shining Lie"--I was extremely impressed with his performance there. Paxton's quirky tinkerings in the movie give it some redemptive value humor-wise, but they are unbelievable as well. I don't even think the special effects by themselves are worth seeing this movie for--it just insults my intelligence too much. Twisters just aren't that predictable. END

Rating:
Summary: IT WAS GREAT!!
Review: The occational humor mixed with the drama makes this worth watching again and again. It's almost worth watching the 70 times I've seen Jurassic Park. END

Rating:
Summary: THIS MOVIE IS EXCELLENT !!!!!!
Review: THIS MOVIE WAS GREAT I'VE NEVER WATCHED A BETTER MOVIE THAN THIS! I LIKE THE PART WHEN HELEN HUNT AND PAXTON ARE DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD AND THE TORNADO SPLITS IN TWO AND REVOLVES AROUND THE TRUCK END

Rating:
Summary: I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!
Review: Paxton and Hunt did a great job acting in this movie! It was very well written, Crichton and whatserface should get tons of reviews and the green stuff for this movie. (The green stuff = moola, moola= money) END

Rating:
Summary: Great movie
Review: For the people who don't like the plot or the acting, I must imagine you have never been a storm chaser, or anything remotely like it. Been there, done that, these actors got the personalities down to a T.

If you like special effects, a little adventure, camaraderie, and a feeling of pursuing what you believe in, and can overlook some of the stupidity (that real life people have) of walking into a tornado, it's a great movie.

Rating:
Summary: the suck zone II
Review: In the movie, the twister destroys a drive-in while The Shining is showing on the screen. One could only imagine that this amounted to a review of The Shining. I don't agree with this review. The Shining is a very good movie.

Rating:
Summary: Special-Effects Star
Review: The special effects are amazing, the plot is wafer thin, the characterization almost non-existance and the love-triangle laughable. Still, "Twister" is a DVD worth watching.

The special effects do kick butt. For those of us who don't live in Twister Country, you get a feeling for the awesome destructive power and sudden danger posed by twisters.

The supporting cast is funny and engaging. Helen Hunts gung-ho staff are particularly good, though a little insight as to why they follow the 2 suicidal lead characters would have been nice. 'Westley' from "Princess Bride" is great as the despicable villian who is as clueless as he is heartless even with the most advanced twister-tracking gadgets(and again, showing WHY he is the way he is would only have added to the story).

The extra "Making of Twister" is also a real treat, but make sure you watch the movie first.

In all, I enjoyed "Twister", despite its flaws. There is a great recreation of the 'drive-in' scene from the movie at Universal Studios Florida that I highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: The best movie ever!
Review: Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton play otherwise-likable characters who are dedicated (driven? obsessed?) with studying and predicting tornadoes. They chase them all over the country, and try to usew new inventions to study them. The special effects are what sold this movie at the box office, and they are very special. There were times when I felt like ducking and dodging flying objects. What elevated this movie one notch above being just a great special effects show were: how much I liked the Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton characters; how everyone in the little group of tornado-chasers seemed to want to be "normal" people but accepted that their "calling" prevented that and made everything that was not tornado-related into a second-level priority.

Rating:
Summary: Soaring Farm Animals Are Featured In This Likeable Flick!
Review: Earning more than $241-Million at the U.S. box office (and just shy of half-a-billion bucks worldwide), "Twister" was certainly a blockbuster hit after premiering in theaters on May 10, 1996.

I've been fond of this movie since seeing it for the first time on VHS. This DVD version tops the horrid Full-Frame VHS copy by a mile.

Sure, this film is a bit overdone in many places, I suppose. And there are enough contrivances to fill up a football stadium -- but it's still a lot of fun to watch nonetheless.

Many people have praised the tornado special effects in "Twister". But, in my opinion, I found most of the CGI tornado footage in the film to look a tad bit on the "phony" side. I think some of these tornadoes look a little "too perfect" to be "real" looking. The majority of twisters I've seen in pictures and on video haven't really looked like these so-called "real" storms we see in this motion picture. The movie's twisters, while impressive and imposing, just don't look quite "right" if you ask me.

In addition, I found some of the sound effects during the tornado scenes to be a bit odd. The filmmakers have seemingly added some unusual-sounding noises to these windstorms. Since when do twisters emanate "groaning" noises? I've always heard that an approaching tornado sounds just like a freight train. I don't think there's any "freight train" sounds in this whole movie. The movie's storms seem to like to groan and whine; almost as if the filmmakers were attempting to make the tornadoes seem like "living creatures". Most curious, IMO. But, oh well... :)

The flying cows and flying tractors are probably a bit on the exaggerated side as well, but it's all in good fun -- and nobody gets hurt by the orbiting moo cows, etc., thanks to Bill Paxton's expert skills of driving directly through the center of an F4 or F5 monster tornado -- a handy skill to have in this film.

Plus: the "flying cow" scene is redeemed by Bill's funny line of dialogue after being warned by Jo (Helen Hunt) of a SECOND flying moo cow in the vicinity -- "Actually, I think that was the same one." (LOL!)

Besides the massive amounts of really windy weather that we experience in the movie, another of the main reasons this motion picture appeals to me (and remains highly re-watchable) is the sheer likeability of the film's characters. The main stars of the film (Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton) perform their tasks fairly well, but it's the secondary (supporting) characters that I really found the most engaging in "Twister" -- such as Jami Gertz, who plays the new woman in Paxton's life. In addition to Gertz, I really like each of the characters that make up the tornado "chase team", including Alan Ruck ("Rabbit") and Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Dusty").

The actors that were employed to represent the team of storm-chasers here seem to me to be 'just right'. That guy "Dusty", in fact, looks perfect for his part. He's totally believable, IMO, as the kind of sloppy-looking, off-the-wall guy who does nothing but chase funnel clouds across the landscape. He gets in a few good zingers of dialogue during the film, too.

This Warner Brothers' single-disc DVD of "Twister" delivers the goods very nicely. The disc contains a good-looking Anamorphic 2.35:1 Widescreen print and three different 5.1 Surround soundtracks (a DTS track, along with English 5.1 Dolby Digital and French 5.1 DD).

This movie is well-suited, I think, for the really-wide "scope" aspect ratio we get here (2.35:1). A nice-quality video transfer makes the movie shine on this DVD.

The DVD has some bonuses worth checking out as well. ..... There's a 2-person Audio Commentary Track, which includes participation by the film's Director (Jan de Bont). In addition to that, the disc has 2 behind-the-scenes featurettes -- "The Making Of 'Twister' " (run time of 13:50) and "Anatomy Of A Twister" (8:32). "Anatomy" takes us on a nice little tour showing how the special effects for the film were accomplished. For some reason, the DVD package only shows the "Anatomy" documentary feature, and omits the other (longer) featurette. But there *are* two separate mini-docs on the disc.

A Van Halen music video, 2 Theatrical Trailers, and some text-only "Cast & Crew" Notes are also included as Special Features on the DVD.


Some additional information about this DVD can be found below:

>> Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.

>> "Twister" was Rated PG-13 by the MPAA for "Intense depiction of very bad weather" (ROFL!! That MPAA blurb kills me! Just imagine what rating a film about a Category 5 hurricane would garner! That'd probably get an NC-17! LOL!)

>> Feature Film Run Time -- 1 hour, 53 minutes.

>> Scene Index, located on inside flap of the "Snapper" case. There are a bunch of individual "Chapters" here too (34 total).

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"Twister" isn't "Oscar-winning" good -- but it's certainly good enough to occupy a spot on the "Films About Natural Phenomena" DVD shelf. :-)