Twister
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.98 You Save: $10.98 (73%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.35 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Twister
Movie Review: Day of Tornados
Summary: 5 Stars
"Twister" is a film that I repeatedly enjoy. I recently got a DVD to replace my videocassette. Jan de Bont who became a star director with "Speed" & then faded with "Speed 2" & "The Haunting" does an excellent job piloting this project. The film was nominated for Oscars for Best Sound & Best Visual Effects. Bill Paxton who was creepy in Frailty plays Bill Harding who is trying to get his ex-wife to sign divorce papers. Paxton may not have great depth; but in a film which hinges on visual effects, he does a good job. He shows up with his fiancee Melissa who is a sex therapist. Jami Gertz plays the character as a prissy, overly organized person who is out of place with these storm chasers. Helen Hunt who won an Oscar for "As Good As It Gets" & a Golden Globe for TV's "Mad About You," is the real star as Jo Harding. Jo is driven by the childhood loss of her father to a tornado and researches to improve early warning capability. She is emotionally still attached to Bill and finds it difficult to let go. As the day of tornados gets underway, the interplay between the two sparks the film, similar to the great formula for Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Widescreen Edition) where Angelina Joli & Brad Pitt played spouses who argue throughout the action.
Many of the smaller parts are well played despite the snippets of dialogue. Lois Smith who was in P.S. & played Jack Nicholson's sister in "Five Easy Pieces" plays Aunt Meg who is always glad to see her niece and feed her crowd. Alan Ruck who worked with de Bont on "Speed" and was recently in The Happening plays Rabbit who continually checks maps. Gary Busey's son Jake plays a mobile lab technician. Philip Seymour Hoffman who would later be nominated for an Oscar for "Charlie Wilson's War" and win one for "Capote" plays the rock blasting Dusty who talks to Melissa about "the suck zone." By the time the final frames arrive, we feel like we've been as close to a tornado as we are ever likely to want to get. There are a few extras on the DVD scenes that give an appreciation for the lean cut de Bont made for the film. In addition, Van Halen do a music video on what is also the excellent soundtrack Twister: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack. Enjoy!
Movie Review: watch out for that tornado!
Summary: 5 Stars
Over the years, people have grown tired of natural disaster movies. Why? Because they all appear to be the same. Here's an example of a typical storyline- everything starts out nice and calm, the story focuses on one family, the family starts having problems and they split up, and then a volcano, tornado, hurricane, or whatever hits, and all the family members somehow miraculously avoid the incredible danger JUST so they can be together again and make up with each other by the end of the movie.
Well, that kind of typical storyline isn't featured here. Twister is truly a classic. It's not ordinary, either. It's about a group of tornado chasers who, as you guessed, drive around speeding through the country in an attempt to get never-before-seen film of a twister, up close and personal.
This means the film delivers the most amazing action I have honestly ever seen in a tornado movie. Twister is definitely better than most of the similar type of films, and I remember in 1996 how influential this movie was. I was in 9th grade, and the science teacher played Twister for the class a couple times throughout the year because it was SO good and much better than other tornado films.
Helen Hunt plays a magnificent role. She is so obsessed with her love of twisters that she barely seems to care about the divorce she's going through. What's great about this is that, despite giving us a really good story about a divorce, this doesn't interfere with all the tornado action. There are *so* many good scenes in Twister that show the devastation tornadoes are capable of that it's simply amazing to me how much time and energy had to happen to make this movie.
Favorite scenes? Well, everyone seems to love the cows floating in the air, so I won't pick that one. I really liked the part where the twister ripped through the outside movie theater, tearing the big screen to shreds as the people quickly ran away to try and get away from it. That's just one of MANY awesome scenes.
The storyline is really good too. It's not just a story about a divorce between Helen and her husband. There's a lot more to it than that. It's complicated because the new girlfriend of the husband shows up and gets involved in all sorts of tornado action (against her will).
This is such an awesome movie. I highly recommend it. Tornado movies don't GET any better than this. Pure action from beginning to end. You will be glued to your television screen hoping the tornado chasers manage to escape the devastating danger. Twister will make you think twice if you're thinking about becoming a tornado chaser.
Movie Review: Classic film here from Dr. Michael Crichton
Summary: 5 Stars
Twister was one of the movies that helped inspired me to do an anthology called Quakes and Storms, and what you see here is a damn good movie that I wish Crichton made into a novel. He's a good author and this film really captures what he does as screen writer.
This movie being done ten years ago, and it still holds up very well. It is one of my uncle's favorite films and one of those movies I will personally get in my collection since I wrote stories about natural disasters in both a horror and science fiction setting.
Twister was the grandaddy for me, much as Wizard of Oz was the grandaddy of Tornado movies except for one thing between the two films -- Twister can happen and in some ways did happen for a town in Illinois called Utica. The movie captures how nasty a tornado is, and follows the characters that Bill Paxton and Hellen Hunt portray as storm chasers.
What you see with this film is how nasty a Viento Borrascoso can be, and Crichton is capable of creating some stories that really enrapture his readers. This is him showing the rest of the public he is capable of doing after writing the cyberpunk Science Fiction classic, Runaway and the screenplay based off Dr. Robin Cook's novel, Coma.
This is him in the 1990s and after the success of Jurrastic Park, he wanted to do something diffrent with the range of genres he is prone to. This movie does have the science fiction element in it but the movie is more realistic in the delivery. One thing you have to respect about Crichton is that he has a lot of credibility when it comes to his screenwriting.
Being his profession is a doctor, he took the story with a doctor's touch and giving it a touch of science. From one Chicago based author of Tornado stories to another, Crichton inspired me very much to do stories like this -- but he did it in a way that adds a lot of finesse That is his trademark, and allowed him to go onto to doing the show ER which was closer to home for him, this is an accurate look at how the Midwest is with her harsh climates.
Movie Review: if have the interests to the nature phenomenons,syould watch
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: Learning the true meaning of "being blown away"!
Summary: 5 Stars
When "Twister" was released in 1996, it was panned by many film critics; but not everyone agrees. "Twister" takes place in America's heartland where tornadoes are common and where residents live in fear of destruction any time a very dark cloud looms overhead.The film depicts the desires of the scientist, Dr. JoAnne Thornton-Harding (Helen Hunt), to get a tornado to swallow up hundreds of sensors so that scientists can analyze their data and obtain a better understanding of tornado dynamics. Her soon-to-be-divorced husband, William 'Bill' Harding (Bill Paxton), plans to marry a very urban psychologist, Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz), as soon as JoAnne signs the divorce papers. Bill brings the divorce papers out to JoAnne, but she's too busy with her sensors and the discovery of a nearby funnel cloud. JoAnne and her crew hurry off to chase the funnel cloud with Bill & Melissa along for the ride.
Over the course of the film, Melissa disovers what Bill really likes to do and that he still has a lot of feelings for JoAnne. She also realizes that she hates being in very close proximity to tornadoes.
The special effects and constant action in the film keep the audience at the edge of their seats!
If you want to "get blown away", this is a great film to own!