1/2 Twister
Twister begins on a small farm where a family is awaken by a loud, rumbling noise. They rush out of the house, with the dog and get into the cellar. They knew what it was. A tornado. The father holds the door shut while the rest of the family waits for the storm to pass. What they didn't expect was that the tornado, a F5, was so powerful, that it ripped the door off its hinges... taking the father with it.
That was the beginning of Twister, a wild look into the dangers of nature. The movie is mostly a thriller, and that's what it is meant to be. If it were supposed to be a documentary, this wouldn't have worked. Thankfully, the producers of this film use state-of-the-art special effects to create some of the most spectacular tornadoes of our time, right next to The Wizard of Oz. In fact, there are some clever hints to The Wizard of Oz, including a weather machine called Dorothy, an aunt, and a dog. It's cute if you think about it.
But that's what the producers don't want you to do during this film. If you thought about this movie, you would see that it really has no plot. It's just another Hollywood movie (you know, the kind of movie where you turn off your mind to watch it). I'm almost glad it is, however. If it had too much of a plot, we would get lost. No one wanted to go see a movie with a complicated story (a.k.a. The Usual Suspects). The filmmakers put extra effort into making the twisters look realistic, and that's what the viewers are paying to see.
To top off this great movie are the actors. Helen Hunt is wonderful and at her best in this movie. She adds the emotional quality we would expect to find from someone like this. Bill Pullman, just getting over his bomb Mr. Wrong, holds the film together. He brings conflict into the picture (his fiance) and also an important factor to the film: he can sense what the storms are going to do. These two together make a great couple. At some points, I felt like there was no emotional connection, but I guess that's what it was supposed to be. I hope, at least. When these two are chasing tornadoes, that's when they are at their best.
The film lags a bit during the sequences without tornadoes, but fortunately, there aren't that many. One frightful event was when the tornado touched down at a movie theater. I figured that this would be frightening if you were watching the movie at a drive-in. Strangely enough, one did. But overall, the movie is an exciting movie filled with great special effects and enough tornadoes to make anyone scared of them. The films was rated PG-13, probably because the movie is frighteningly realistic and young kids shouldn't see it.