Double Feature Recommendations “Twister” (1996) and “Twisters” (2024)
Written by Victor DeBonis
“Twister” (1996)
I am delighted to say that “Twister” is one of those cases in which I have greatly grown to overall admire a movie over time. When I was younger, I didn’t think much of this film. I didn’t hate it, but, whenever the tornados weren’t present, I didn’t find what was going on with the people too interesting. I was more eager to see the people trying to survive and hear some of the music.
As much as I have expressed my deep love for the 90’s in terms of movies and music and art, in general, for many times in the past, I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t admired everything from this era, and some of my opinions on some movies from this era, if anything, got a little worse over time (Some examples are “Armageddon” and “Spawn”).
Watching this movie today, I have developed a greater appreciation for several reasons. One of them is now viewing this movie as partly a nice tale of humble, passionate misfits (Bill Paxton, Holly Hunt, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman) going against corporate, greedy people (Cary Elwes and his crew). Elwes is admittedly cartoonish with his smarminess and Southern accent, and some of his predictable comments occasionally present him as a stereotypical bully as opposed to a threatening one. What ultimately makes it work is Elwes himself who leans into the arrogance and successfully makes him both a pitiful and interestingly infuriating opponent to see taken down. Jami Gertz plays a possible wife of Paxton and is also a bit silly in her wearing an expensive suit and her often widening her eyes or being on her phone as a tornado is approaching, but she has a few humorous bits.
Part of my interest for now as opposed to when I was a kid also comes from reading about and personally seeing the lengths to which a corporate organization and money can either corrupt people or hurt others. The dollar is all that matters to them, and they could care less who or what gets damaged in the process as long as they personally profit from it. So, I’m eager to see Paxton and heroes join in besting Elwes.
Another reason I greatly admire the movie comes from the performances of Paxton, Hunt, and Hoffman. Hunt’s character races down the road and debates with passion without losing sight of her warmth. And, wow, seeing this movie again is both heartwarming and painful to receive another reminder of why it is sad to no longer have such remarkable acting talents as Paxton and Hoffman. Paxton expresses believable insight of the conditions and hardened instincts, and, through the back-and-forth debates with Hunt, I believe that he is trying to grapple with his complicated feelings about the latter. Why does he sometimes quarrel with her, but, also, doesn’t he have more in common with Hunt than Jami Gertz’s overly preoccupied character and have more chemistry with her? Helen Hunt holds the same feelings of love towards him, which turns this into an intriguing situation.
Again, time has also helped me to appreciate this movie more in this regard. Since my love for movies and shows has grown from the time in which I was young, I have seen my fair share of movies and series that present divorcing or separating couples as mostly non-stop arguing couples who just treat each other worse and worse (One example is a Vince Vaughn “comedy” called “The Break-Up”) and they don’t do much to make me like them as characters or even people.
In “Twister” there are moments within the chaos in which the two will share their focus and passion on the task at hand but also try to express their understanding of their personal conflicts.
One of the greatest character actors of all time, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, causes a grin in my face when I witness his lovable, charmingly kid-like energy. He adores the thrill of the chase and personally makes me a fan as he switches on classic rock to fuel his energy for chasing a towering tornado. Hoffman was a true chameleon who stepped into the shoes of pretty much any character, regardless of the project, with full commitment and ease, and his devotion to playing this playful comic relief character is yet another reminder of why I and others miss him like crazy.
Director Jan de Bont, similar to his work in “Speed” once more presents his skills at setting up intense action sequences. Some of the CG doesn’t hold up as well as it did over 2 decades ago, particularly those from objects flying in the direction of our heroes. Yet, those pitch-black CG tornadoes appear and sound thoroughly intimidating, even on a smaller screen, and the stunt crew does great work in properly staging sequences involving the actors trying to keep from harm on the road or hold onto something for dear life in the face of the intimidating threat swirling around them.
Also, I love the soundtrack to this movie. Mark Mancina’s score is great and develops a solid mix of wonder and peril with his music. Those choral voices help with that. Yet, did you know that Tori Amos, Lisa Loeb, Van Halen, and Red Hot Chili Peppers are all on this soundtrack and have songs played in this film that work well to set the mood for both the thrilling and quieter moments? Remember that time when movies had terrific rock soundtracks to accompany them and added to the fun of seeing and listening to them? Man, I miss that…
The movie is a little cartoonish at points and has CG that doesn’t always work. I also don’t know if I love this movie to the extent that I adore “Speed” but I definitely say that this is a movie I wish I could see on the big screen and one that I have a very fun time with and have come to overall admire over time.
Grade: B+
Twisters (2024)
“Twisters” is simultaneously a decent blockbuster and a somewhat interesting film when taking time to reflect upon it. There is much to admire in this movie’s great work at paying tribute to those who are meteorologists and perform their profession in that field. In this movie, the characters spend a solid amount of time using terms to express their knowledge about wind speed and skills to sense when a tenacious force of nature is approaching closer and do other actions to show their skill and expertise. The film also takes a little more time than expected to present the tragic effects left upon a town in the wake of a monstrous tornado or storm. By performing both of these actions, the movie places greater emphasis upon the brave and knowledgeable souls wanting to participate in this line of work, and this is quite admirable, especially when one considers that the previous 1996 movie, “Twister” temporarily caused an increase in college students signing up to pursue a path in meteorology not long after the original was released in theaters.
Between his performance in the excellent “Hit Man” and his work here, Glen Powell is having a solid year and shines with charisma. His character bears an amused grin when he stumbles upon new information, and he floors it in his truck with determination in the face of ominous weather conditions. For all of his hollering with joy at the sight of a twister, however, Powell also wisely dials down his energy when needed with legitimate understanding of a storm as he plans his next move or gives a serious monologue. He is a born star, and I look forward to seeing what else he does in the near future.
Daisy Edgar-Jones is great to follow as well, and she displays vulnerability and a subtle (if sometimes rattled) courage and wisdom when dealing with one of these furious tunnels from the sky. Her keen gazes and superb understanding of the weather leads to the presence of a smart, interesting character to follow, and the misfortune of what happens to her character, earlier on, develops a solid amount of emotional weight for her. Jones’ backstory grapples with guilt and pain from what happens when one ventures too far in pursuit of something, and, although I was pretty confident of what the outcome for her was going to be, I still sympathized greatly for her and wanted to see her deal with her trauma.
Jones and Powell share solid chemistry when they’re in the same room together. They’re quick to point out each other’s flaws, but they also slowly start to see the other’s strengths and pleasantly glance at each other with admiration and respect. And, similar to Paxton and Hunt from the 1996 film, they also share a lovable passion for what they do as they plot out the next way to track down a tornado while also voicing their expertise in their profession.
The action sequences are fine as they start out but don’t have a ton of stakes in the first half given that they’re further away from these specific tornados that already look a little on the lighter side. Yet, the thrill from seeing their wide-eyed love for what they witness is pretty fun. With this being said, once the movie reaches the middle and the danger heightens with these furious funnels of destruction, the thrills heighten as well, and the film takes advantage of it with some well-executed camerawork. One scene in the middle of a tornado hitting, for instance, involves taking a longer time to follow one of our heroes trying to assist someone who is too foolish for his own good and then shows what happens to the latter before continuing to stay low to the ground just to see said hero fighting to crawl and clutch on something for dear life just to survive. Moments, such as this, are great and lend to the thrilling aspect of the film of which many are coming to witness.
It probably also helps that the CG effects are far better this time around, and the textures of these tornadoes look closer to how they would in real life. Some great sound design occurs with the twisters, as well, involving rumbling roars and whooshes that could almost be felt from the seats. From the side, the twisters can occasionally look a touch phony, and they don’t always blend great with the background, but, overall, they appear intimidating and rather real.
I will say, though, that I overall prefer the original a bit more. One reason is that the side characters of “Twisters” are lacking in personality and characterization. They are acted well, and they show clear investment in doing what they do and believably speak as one would expect those in this field to do. The problem is that we don’t see too many interactions amongst themselves outside of usually running to their trucks to catch the next twister. In the original film, I remember Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s lovable goofball who loves to rock music and the admirable nerds who get “in the zone” for following a storm by putting on classic music and being annoyed when someone foolishly tries to mess up their maps.
I remember the warm, motherly aunt character of Helen Hunt and her subtle wisdom and plainspoken insights that she shares with her niece. As cartoonish as Cary Elwes’ meteorologist opponent was, he was a hilarious and stunningly accurate example of someone messed up by their own greed and trying to do something for a corporation rather than scientific passion, and I remembered him. These side characters and moments with them (How can someone not grin at them all chanting together “Food…FOOD!…?”) admittedly resonated with me far more than I will probably remember from the side characters in this movie. Katy O’Brian pops up as a side character, and, after seeing her incredible work in the amazing movie “Love Lies Bleeding” it was hard to see her vividly trying to bring more life to her character but being limited by what the script gives her. There’s a British journalist character who reacts with the baffled expressions and soft-spoken persona I would expect this type of person to have, but, while he’s never annoying, he is a bit too predictable to cause me to laugh very much. The story itself isn’t necessarily going to present anything shocking in terms of what goes on, either. I know what choice one of Jones’ past friends is going to make when something is revealed about him, and I know that they’re all going to collaborate in the way they do once the third act starts to happen, and I know who is going to triumph in their goal of overcoming fear inflicted by what happened before, and so on.
Also, director Lee Isaac Chung does solid work here with his smart voice and sense of fun to what occurs, but, while the action sequences in this film work well as mentioned, certain qualities about Jan de Bont’s scenes from the 1996 movie had a bit more bite to them. I recall Paxton and Hunt and crew running and driving as close to the chaos and menace of these tornadoes earlier on in the original, and there was a more playful set-up to the paths following these tornadoes with the characters plowing through the fields in the trucks to Van Halen blaring in their speakers along with aforementioned people who are, as aforementioned, a little more interesting to follow in their own ways. The original had brief yet playful scenes, such as Paxton’s possible future wife character saying “Cow” in shock when she spots a flying cow in front of her. Not everything about the 96 film has aged well, necessarily, particularly from a CG standpoint, yet, the movie embraced its fun and foolish side a little more and, to me, it resulted in a slightly more fun experience.
All this being said, I had a very good time with “Twisters.” I admire its main heroes and the terrific performances coming from talented actors playing them. The action sequences involving these tornadoes is a blast to witness and increases with its thrills and some well-crafted staging of the danger from them and people trying to survive them. And, I also appreciate the movie’s intelligence and respect for those pursuing a career in weather to help others. Plus, I also admired the effective emotional backstory regarding Jones’ character, and I wanted to see what she would do to face what she felt guilt and developed dread from. The story doesn’t always work, but, overall, there is enough heart, playfulness, and a fair amount of intelligence to result in a satisfactory ride.
Grade: B