Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3748 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-01-23
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Dutch, Finnish, Czech
• Dubbed in: German, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Twister was a mega-million-dollar blockbuster--helmed by a director (Dutchman Jan de Bont) hot off another scorcher hit (Speed)--that flaunted state-of-the-art digital effects and featured a popular leading actress (Helen Hunt) who would win an Academy Award for her next film (As Good As It Gets). But ask anybody who's seen it and they'll tell you who the real star of Twister is: the cow. Not to give anything away, but the cow is one of those inspired little touches (like, say, Bronson Pinchot's career-making cameo in Beverly Hills Cop) that adds a touch of personality to a gigantic Hollywood production. The story is blown out the window after an impressive prologue in which Hunt's character, as a little girl, witnesses her daddy being sucked into a tornado. Basically, Hunt and Bill Paxton are thrill-seeking meteorologists chasing twisters in order to study them (and help warn people of them, of course) with a new technology they've developed. If you thought the Kansas tornado in The Wizard of Oz was every bit as scary as the Wicked Witch of the West, then this may be the movie for you. --Jim Emerson

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
DVD 9
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English French German Italian Spanish
Dolby Digital 5.1
Production Notes
Cast And Filmmakers Biographies
Theatrical Trailer

Synopsis
A pair of scientists pursue a destructive weatherfront across America. A mile high and at a speed of 300 miles per hour, the Twister is on its way and nothing can stop it.

Customer Reviews

Forget the plot and wait for the special effect twisters
Some movies are made as excused to play with special effects, which is a pretty good explanation for "Twister." This film was basically sold to the American public on the basis of two special effects shots in the trailer: a tornado demolishing a barn plank by plank and a tire heading right through a windshield at the camera. The latter was not in the film, but that was beside the point. In 1939 Arnold Gillespe used a stocking to terrify children for the rest of the century with the tornado in "The Wizard of Oz." In 1996 "Twister" intended to up the ante with computerized effects (of course there are lots of homages to the previous film, with "Dorothy" being the name of the tornado device that measures the wind speeds of the tornado and the cow blowing around in the air just like what Dorothy saw out her window when her twister lifted up the house).

Director Jan de Bont was making his second film after the smash hit "Speed," so basically he needed some action. But the script by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin decides to overload the script with melodramatic elements. Helen Hunt plays Dr. JoAnne "Jo" Thorton-Harding, who has been chasing tornadoes ever since the night one of them took her daddy away. Her scientific purpose is to study them so that meterologists can make more accurate predictions and warn people in time to save lives, but obviously she has deep psychological demons driving her as well. This is one of the reasons that her husband, William Harding (Bill Paxton) is trying to get her to sign divorce papers. He is hoping to build a new life with Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jamie Gertz), but being able to study tornadoes in peace without Jo going crazy would be nice too. But if Helen Hunt wants to see what the inside of a tornado looks like, then that is what she should get to do. Besides, even Melissa knows that Jo and Bill still love each other.

If this was not enough to give a whole new dimension to what is already an exciting proposition (these people want to chase tornadoes; what more do you need to get excited about in a movie?), the script sets up the "good" tornado chasers, including Philip Seymour Hoffman as Dustin Davis and Alan Ruck as Robert "Rabbit" Nurick, and the "bad" tornado chasers, led by Dr. Jonas Miller (Cary Elwes), who is more interested in corporate sponsorship and television specials than in the holy grail of pure scientific research. The "bad" guys even drive black vehicles in precision formations, while the "good" guys drive vehicles that each have to have at least 100,000 miles on them.

Consequently we have personal and professional circumstances that drive these people to put themselves in the path of oncoming hurricanes, which is, ultimately, the whole point of the movie. "Twister" is not about a single hurricane, but several, all apparently different, with the biggest and baddest of them all, the Level 5 "Finger of God," coming at the end. You have to be impressed that not only our hero and heroine survive these tornadoes, but that the script manages to make it reasonable that their lives are imperiled repeatedly in this film. That is what makes this a fun film, because even if the plot is on the level of a theme park ride, the special effects come fast and furious. Just think Tornadoes 5 (three levels of meaning there, people), Plot 3, and "Twister" grades out at a 4.

Final Note: At some point in the past the ratings board decided that saying a movie was PG-13 was not enough information for warning parents. The PG-13 rating for "Twister" is "for intense depiction of very bad weather." I leave you to ponder what a film would have to show in terms of bad weather to warrant an R rating (or higher).

Really good viewing!
My kids first told me about this film, they loved it - I watched it and agreed with them. It's all go in this film, the tornado scenes are awesome and you find yourself getting frustrated along with the characters in the film as they try to set up "Dorothy" to monitor the tornados. Fascinating and exciting, I could watch this again anytime.

Awsome
This is one of my all time great movies, the action is real with excellent scenes of on of the most devastating forces of nature. Twister is an action, adventure with romantic twist. All the actors portray there parts very well. One film I would watch over and over.