TWISTERS blows into theaters July 19th in hopes of stirring up a rather dismal summer box office. I feel we have had little to cheer about the last few months, but luckily this one brings action, excitement, and some heartland humor to local theaters.
Synopsis: A retired tornado-chaser and meteorologist is persuaded to return to Oklahoma to work with a new team and new technologies.
It has been twenty eight years since Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton took on tornadoes in the 1996 hit movie TWISTER. With similar titles and the Oklahoma location you would think that this one would tie in somehow. Other than some nasty weather, there is no sequel or character connections here.
The premise of Twisters is very similar in that you have two teams of storm chasers trying to get to the root cause of these storms and find a way to control them; saving lives and property. One team is corporate driven with high tech gear and science as their mantra. Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Javi (Anthony Ramos) having survived a horrible event in their lives now back in Oklahoma to make a change. The other, led by a charismatic YouTube star (Glen Powell), are a renegade group using social media to create excitement and adventure around the twisters.
As the story unfolds the two teams discover a lot about each other and find they have the same end result in mind. I am a big fan of the 1996 movie and had big hopes for this one. It did not disappoint. Powell is fun to watch in this one as he smiles and struts his way across the state. His character is a polar opposite of Kate’s and watching them together brought about some stormy energy as well.
Tornados are rated – sadly – on how much damage they create. So a movie about twisters better have a lot of scary, life threatening weather. It needed to be big, loud and destructive. TWISTERS has the weather we wanted but it also never felt Hollywood. They tear up a lot of real-estate in a way that seemed believable. We have all seen the aftermath of storms on the news and this film was not asking us to extend our imagination too far.
Will I watch this one as many times as I did the 1996 Twister film? Maybe. It is a movie that does feel timeless and re-watchable. Not as many quotable lines but a lot of action and memorable characters.
Other than some intense, scary moments, the film is pretty tame. They could have added some gratuitous scenes and humor. They drive the high road in this one letting the storms take center stage. TWISTERS is rated PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language and injury images.
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