Review of Twister (1996) by Filipeneto — 14 Dec 2019

Good scenes of destruction, but without any plot to justify them.

Disaster films are generally popular but critically slaughtered. This movie was no exception. Released in 1996, it is still popular today and remains popular with movie buffs where the total destruction and death of half the cast is a must. In this case, we follow the vicissitudes of a group of "tornado hunters" as they try to debut a revolutionary new sensor called "Dorothy" that will give them current readings and information about the inside of a tornado cone.

The film is directed by Jan de Bont. Personally, and despite all the flaws, I liked some of his movies, like "The Haunting" (ok, I don't consider him terrified). Here, I recognize, he did nothing very good, and Steven Spielberg, who was executive producer, did not help him. But the biggest problem with this movie is that it doesn't have a story. There is a reason why the characters are there and from there we start chasing after tornadoes. I don't understand why that couple, who are in divorce proceedings, suddenly decide to travel in the same car to hunt for tornadoes as in the "good old days." There are also some credibility and likelihood issues, such as the fact that, with so much debris flying dangerously around, the characters are never hit by anything that truly hurts them.

Helen Hunt is the actress who dominates the whole movie, and I even liked her here, giving life to an enthusiastic, upbeat and resourceful tornado hunter, but with a traumatic past that makes her permanently in search of danger. Bill Paxton was reasonable, and goes well with Hunt. Some of the most emotional moments of the film are starring the two actors, who make romantic pair here. Jami Gertz doesn't seem to know what she's doing here, and is quickly dismissed by the script; Cary Elwes is effective in giving life to a bastard worthy of a painful death; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck, Scott Thomson, and Todd Field support the main cast well, and help to make some ineffective comedy, but it keeps the movie with some elegance and prevents it from becoming too tense.

The best of the movie, I think, is the action-packed, special-effects and green-screen scenes, where tornadoes are violent, can come out of nowhere and take everything you find except the good actors in the movie. Cars, houses, live cows, sharp blades, tractors and whole tankers ... everything flies except two light human beings. Although unlikely, it is good to see and makes the movie worth it.