Twister Review
by Scott Mendelson (mendbgbs AT ix DOT netcom DOT com)April 21st, 1997
TWISTER
A film review by Scott Mendelson
Copyright 1997 Scott Mendelson
1996
110 min.
rated PG-13(for profanity and much bad weather)
Directed by Jan De Bont
Starring:
Industrial Lights and Magic(as: The Tornadoes)
Helen Hunt
Pill Paxton
Cary Elwes
In short, Twister is a perfect summer flick. It's acting is adequate, it's character are 1/2 dimensional, it's sub-plots are silly, but boy, oh boy is it FUN!!!!
The Plot: Tornado chasers Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton duel with mother nature while trying to rekindle their marriage and fend off a rival chaser(Cary Elwes).
The film starts out with a truly chilling bang. Beginning in 1969, the film starts with a family of three(four, if you count a dog that, probably not coincidentally, looks a lot like Toto, from Wizard of Oz) running from their home to an underground shelter, after a surprise storm hits the town. The little child, having never seen a tornado before, is amazed at its power and can hardly believe her eyes when it blows the shelter door to pieces and takes her father with it. This scene is frighteningly effective in the same way that the opening scene of Cliffhanger was(and is probably the only reason, why you would question taking a young child to this film). It builds tension by delaying the inevitable, because we know what will happen, but hope that it doesn't.
Of course, the special effects are truly eye-popping(I gave them top billing; they are the REAL stars of this flick). There tornadoes are frighteningly convincing, and so is the damage that it does. All through the movie, we wonder: what will we see in midair next(my personal favorite are the flying cows, which bellow out a frightened "MOO" as they fly through the air).
As said before, the film is fun. Aside, from the scary opening scene, the film's "scares" are more of the "ooh, Ahh, oh no" variety as opposed to truly horrific scenes of destruction(it helps that the body count is kept to a bare minimum).
OK, I wasn't exactly expecting the level of quality that went into the characters of Jaws(the movie to which all other revenge of nature/science movies will be measured against, and rightly so). Still, director Jan De Bont did get great performances out of Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and(especially) Dennis Hopper in Speed. Of course, Hopper and Co. actually had distinct personalities to play off of. Hunt, Paxton, and Ewles are given very little. Hunt plays the tough chick, Paxton plays the ex-husband, and Elwes plays the other tornado chaser.
I feel particularly bad for Ewles. He is a great actor. Yet, he can't seem to get respect. Let's see, in The Princess Bride, he was great, but was overshadowed by Mandy Patankin. In Glory(the greatest film ever made about an American war), he was great, but was overshadowed by Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington. In Robin Hood: Men in Tights, he was great but was overshadowed by the fact that the movie sucked. In Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, he was great but was overshadowed by Jason Scott Lee, and all the lions and tigers and bears(oh, my!).
Michael Crichton(who wrote the screenplay) is known for injecting much scientific knowledge in his(great) books. In Twister, we get many scenes of people in "weather watch"-like stations, with lots of fancy looking, computer animated programs for tracking the weather. Yet, no one bothers to explain what any of the screens mean, or explain the scientific dialogue that goes along with it. Gee, and we could have learned something too...
OK, now, that all is said and done.
As said before, it's silly, occasionally stupid, and it's characters are ill-defined. But, it's a great time at the movies. If you want quality, wait till fall. If you just want a good time, then summer is the season. Twister is a summer movie. "B+"
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
