Review of Twister

A storm is brewing in the distance indeed, because some critics are hating this film. Directed by Jan de Bont, Twister (1996) stars Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's kind of funny that the original tag-line for the film was going to be "It sucks" but the producers felt that it worked too much to the advantage of disappointed audiences and critics. It's doesn't really suck in a bad way. It's a very entertaining piece—not that good, but not that bad. Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt as an estranged couple who chase tornadoes for a living surprising the dialogue between them is funny and catchy—it's felt very well written for a disaster movie. We follow these storm-chasers during a wild 24-hour-period in a quest to deploy a large piece of scientific equipment in the path of a tornado, in hopes of studying it's traits from the inside with a rag-tag team of scientists. Each supporting cast of the movie's crew of storm-chasers has its bits of character develop stereotypes and exaggerated caricatures of real people. You have the smart guy with the map, the computer guy, the film and camera crew… but most of all; you got Dusty play by Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's very cool to see him in a role where he doesn't take himself so serious, because most of his roles after this movie were a big serious. While, not chasing storms, the viewer are treated with a sub-story of Bill getting suck into the thrill of storm chasing, forcing him to reconnect an relationship with Josie (Helen Hunt's character) and ignoring his relationship with his new girlfriend. We get a back story of Helen Hunt's character reasons why she track storms, in a way to get revenge on them, for the death of her father who die from one. Then you got the story of the rivalry of competing storm-chasing teams lead by Carl Elwes. Carl Elwes plays also a caricature of the evil, corporation man who in it for money rather than science opposite of Bill's character. Without giving too much out away—it's incredibly entertaining. It's a very cookie-cutter popcorn flick. The CGI tornadoes were great at the time of filming, plus it's pretty real to me. It's eye candy. Just don't take the sum-story so serious, and enjoy yourself. You would be blow away how some critics deem it 'bad', and find yourself having fun watching it.