An estranged couple putting the finishing touches on a divorce (played by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt) find themselves back in their old ways: chasing tornados. Bill (Paxton) unwittingly brings along his new fiancee (Jami Gertz) who knows very little about his old life as the old crew tries to deploy “Dorothy” a canister of sensors that are supposed to get sucked up by a tornado and radio back data in an effort to create a better warning system. Failed attempt after failed attempt result in finally figuring out a way to make the sensors fly and they’ll have to deploy their new method using the biggest tornado “of the past 30 years” in order to do it.
TWISTER was one of the biggest summer blockbusters of 1996 (along with Independence Day, The Rock and the first Mission: Impossible) and made nearly $500 million at the box office against its $90 million budget. There’s no mystery as to why they made a sequel 28 years later.
But here’s to hoping the sequel learns from its predecessor’s mistakes.
The special effects simply do not hold up — which is forgivable since technology is always the victim of it’s era — but for an action movie whose story is literally built around special effects, it’s disappointing. When flying trees have a glossy-feel to them, explosions have a quality that suggests the interns produced them and, worst of all, the tornados look fake against the ground and sky… it’s a problem.
As far as performances go, Hunt is a natural, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays his side character perfectly and Elwes is great in the villain role (even if he his screen time is limited). The weak link, as it turns out, is actually Paxton. Not only can he not carry the movie as the lead but his entire character arc relies on male machismo for growth. I don’t care if that was acceptable for the time, it’s just lazy writing.
A weak story, stereotypical script, questionable special effects and plenty of convenient continuity errors, 1996’s TWISTER is nothing more than fun, adrenaline-packed eye candy. It’s just really too bad when a project lets it’s actors down because it means it had the ability and potential to be so much better.
JKG SCORE: 5.5
Untitled Film Project 