Twister

I thoroughly enjoyed TWISTER! I saw it in theaters and was completely blown away! (No pun intended.) I loved the big, loud, thrilling action sequences and the fun characters. Although most people criticize the writing as being poor, I actually thought most of it was quite clever. Unlike worse action movies, you actually understand the characters' personality.

The cast is great! Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz, Lois Smith, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck, Anthony Rapp, and the rest of the cast (as well as Jan De Bont, Steven Spielberg, and Michael Crichton) make this an entertaining and educational movie!

This film is not high cinematic art. It was intended to be a summer blockbuster "put your brain on hold" action film when it was released in 1996, and that is what it was and still is. Its competition at the time was "Independence Day", which is an unwatchable hokey movie, and this movie is better than that film in that it is a watchable hokey movie. Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton play recently divorced storm chasers Jo and Bill Harding whose relationship was pulled apart by Jo's obsession with chasing tornadoes to the exclusion of wanting any kind of "normal family life" by Bill's definition. Bill has moved on and found a more conventional girl that he plans to marry (Jami Gertz). However, before he can move on, Bill needs Jo to sign some papers. He meets her "in the field" as she and her team from the university plan a day of chasing tornadoes through Oklahoma. Before they can conclude their business a storm calls the team to the chase, and Bill is drawn into the chase by necessity but kept there by his latent passion - for storm-chasing and maybe even for the marriage he left behind. The film features some great special effects, fast-paced action, and cringingly obvious dialog with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. However if you're just in the mood for an action-packed film with a feel-good after effect, this movie fits the bill.

The current rating of 6/10 is probably correct if you are comparing Twister with Casablanca. If you judge it as an action film against other action films, I'd say it's probably more of a 7 out of 10.

Twister, one of the most successful movies of the 90's, mainly due to it's special effects and a lot of people's want for a natural disaster movie that is fun to watch, this was an extremely popular movie. I was only 11 when the movie was released and I was absolutely in love with it, in fact right after the movie was done, I wanted to become a storm chaser. That's how much I loved this movie; I grew up and forgot about the movie and decided on a new career. But I saw the DVD on sale and thought about how much I enjoyed the movie when I was younger, I'm sure it would be just as much fun to see it again. I have to say this wasn't as awesome as I remembered, in the theater it was like "Oh, my God! Look at that flying cow! A house just flew across the road! That is so cool!", now on my TV screen I was like "Oh, wow, look at that cow. How the heck does a house fly across the road? Why isn't this as cool as I remembered it?" Not to mention that the story wasn't as good as I remembered, granted I know that they had to fit in some kind of story with the whole plot of the twisters, but a lot of this movie is just plain unrealistic.

In June 1969 on an Oklahoma farm a tornado warning is issued, the family seeks shelter in a storm cellar as an F5 tornado strikes. However, the storm is so strong that the locks on the cellar door fail and the father is caught up in the storm and killed as his daughter struggles to catch a glimpse of the powerful storm. Years later, Dr. Jo Harding, the father's daughter, is reunited with her estranged husband; Bill Harding. Bill is a former weather researcher and storm chaser who has taken a job as a weather reporter. He is planning to marry his new girlfriend, Dr. Melissa Reeves, and arrives at Jo's research lab seeking Jo's signature for the final divorce papers. Bill discovers that Jo has built a tornado research device called DOROTHY based upon his own design; the device is designed to release hundreds of sensors into the center of a tornado to study its structure. The team later meets up with Dr. Jonas Miller, a smug and unscrupulous fellow meteorologist and storm chaser. When Bill discovers that Jonas has "invented" a device almost identical to DOROTHY; he vows to help Jo deploy DOROTHY before Miller can claim credit for the idea. Bill and Melissa join Jo and her eccentric team of storm chasers. Tensions rise between Jo and Bill when they have several close calls with dangerous tornadoes as they try unsuccessfully to deploy the new device.

So how does Twister hold up over these years? Not so well, the effects are still amazing, but that's about it. I do have to admit, even though it's a bad movie, I still enjoy it like crazy. I think because if you let go of how unrealistic it is, you can just have fun with that want of destruction and chaos. Granted I know this movie is a bit stupid: our two leads, Bill and Jo, survive the impossible facing an F5 twister, the twisters always disappear as our "hero's" are in danger, Bill's fiancé puts up with quit a bit before realizing that he is a jerk for putting her through all the danger with him, Jo, a scientist, thinks that tornado's are serial killers, and not to mention that this was a record breaking day with numerous twisters. But still as bad as the acting, as bad as the story, as stupid as some of these situations may be, it's still a fun movie to watch and I think I wanna be fair with the rating just because it is mindless entertainment. It's a classic 90's disaster movie and besides, it has flying cows, what other film will give you that kind of situation? But it's all good I think they were taking the cows to McDonald's anyways.

7/10

I get a lot of stick from friends for saying this, but: I really like Twister. I enjoy a good thoughtful film as much as the next stuck-up film snob, but I also love damned good action flicks.

Twister is a big dumb summer blockbuster with no pretensions whatsoever. I *like* the fact that the money is all up there on the screen - lots of tornadoes ripping apart farmhouses and throwing trucks around. I *like* that it's one long chase movie. I *like* looking at Helen Hunt's beautiful face. I saw Twister twice at the cinema, and at least three times since - and I've enjoyed it every single time. Can you get a better recommendation than that?

Twister will never satisfy some people... in particular, those who watch it, for some strange reason, expecting a cerebral masterpiece. Enjoy it for what it is: One of the best summer blockbusters ever.

Hey people come on! Give TWISTER another chance! Films, even action films, don't HAVE to have "an inventive plot" or "decent performances" or "a script that wasn't written by a machine" to be "good." All I need is light, noise, and lotsa 'splosions! Take those elements and paste over a thin layer of worn-out story borrowed from 10 or twelve other movies and you got a winner, thank you! Throw in some great acting-Bill Paxton's "staring at the dirt" moment alone FLOORS me. And ever notice how Helen Hunt is constantly bustling about with her head down whenever she's not scrunching her face into her patented "I'm sad and cute" look (Hello Oscar!)-that's ACTING! And Jamie Gertz! Welcome back to the cinema! I haven't seen you since LISTEN TO ME! And don't even get me started on the lovable ragamuffins known as the "storm chasers"! The way they're thrown at us like we'll immediately love them! The way you're not sure how many of them there are! (And the fat red-hared "dude"! That's what they mean by COOL! I mean COOL-AGE!) And Cary Elwes! What a great villian! He's in it for the money!(Hsss!) At first I wasn't sure what accent he was doing, since it changed every scene, but then I realized he was doing all of them! And the F/X! WOWWW!!! This movie follows the rule "We got a computer, who needs a script?". I love how the characters "find" the big tornado in the end-on a perfectly sunny day, no less-and drive right up to it with no damage done! I can't wait to try that myself! (I just hope I have lots of cans of delicious refreshing Pepsi-Cola(TM)!!!)

To sum up, this is a rollercoaster wrapped inside a thrillride of a movie and I implore you to give a second chance! Please don't get hung up on this notion that a big budget action film could actually be daring and original and even a little smart. All we need are CGIs and THX sound and films made by the marketing department of the studios to keep us happy! Give me more! I'm waiting!