Twister (Wide Screen) > Reviews > Twister

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Very weak
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Outstanding
Soundtrack	Unmemorable

Advantages:	Great special effects
Disadvantages:	Story line was weak

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

In geography we have been learning about climatic hazards and my teacher suggested that if we hadn't already seen this film that we watch it as a visual aid to help us for the exam. Being the conscientious student that I am, I asked my dad if he would hire it from Screen Select (as that's where we get most of our DVDs). Twister arrived on Tuesday morning so we settled down to watch it that evening.

~ A little bit about tornadoes ~

Most tornado activity is found in the USA. The air movements here are unique as three air masses meet causing lots of tornadoes to occur. The area is known as Tornado Alley. A tornado (commonly known as a twister) is a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground that originated from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud. The film is based in Oklahoma, which is an area within Tornado Alley.

~ About the film ~

The story is based around two married storm chasers, Dr. Jo Harding (Helen Hunt), and her soon to be ex-husband Bill Harding (Bill Paxton). At the beginning of the film, Bill goes out into the fields of Oklahoma to find Jo so she can sign the divorce papers, as Bill wants to marry his new girlfriend, Dr. Melissa Reeves. Bill used to be a storm chaser but is now a weather man.

When Bill and Melissa arrive at the field Jo appears reluctant to sign the papers and shows Bill DOROTHY, a device that Bill invented and that Jo has built. DOROTHY is designed to release hundreds of sensors into the centre of a twister so they can find out exactly what goes on inside and so that they can increase warning times, which will allow more lives to be saved. Bill is extremely pleased to see DOROTHY but is outraged to discover that Jonas Miller, a fellow storm chaser who is only in it for the money, has 'invented' a device almost identical to DOROTHY. Bill is determined to get DOROTHY into a twister before Jonas can claim credit for the idea so he joins Jo and her team of storm chasers. They need to get dangerously close to the twister so that it will pick up DOROTHY in its destructive path. After failing the first time they don't give up and so continue chasing the twister.

~ My Opinion ~

I don't think I'd recommend this film. I found the story line was quite weak and in parts I was a bit bored. Bill and Jo had a few too many EXTREMELY close encounters with death for it to be completely believable. I'm not saying that it wasn't true to life as I don't know how many times a tornado chaser almost encounters death (a good few I'd imagine!) but most of the film seemed to be Bill and Jo holding on for dear life after reaching the area of the twister! As the story line is weak it doesn't involve much thought so not much concentration is required. However the special effects were fantastic and from a geographical point of view I enjoyed it as it showed what a tornado looks like and also the devastating effects that they have on the places they hit.

Michael Crichton and his wife Anne-Marie Martin wrote twister.

The film runs approximately 108 minutes.

~ The cast ~

Helen Hunt .... Dr. Jo Harding
Bill Paxton .... Bill Harding
Cary Elwes .... Dr. Jonas Miller
Jami Gertz .... Dr. Melissa Reeves

Thank you for reading! bluejules x