**_Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt chasing tornadoes on the prairie_** When atmospheric conditions are conducive to tornadoes, a weatherman (Paxton) tracks down his separated wife (Hunt) and inadvertently joins their storm-chasing team in the Midwest because he can’t resist seeing his sensor invention finally put to use. Jami Gertz plays his new love, Cary Elwes a pompous rival and Philip Seymour Hoffman a wild team member. “Twister” (1996) could be categorized as a disaster flick, but with the distinction that the protagonists are constantly chasing the potential disaster. The entire film takes place in the prairies or forests of the Midwest with ominous skies and intermittent destructive tornadoes. It’s called “Twister” and that’s what you get. The writers keep things interesting by adding human interest with the, admittedly contrived, love triangle and the rival storm-chasing team that has corporate sponsors (the horror, the horror). I didn’t mind the love story. When two people belong together, they belong together. Perhaps the fiancé will realize this. Speaking of which, I’m glad they didn’t make her (Gertz) out to be an unreasonable biyatch, like in “The Parent Trap.” At the end of the day, “Twister” gives you what you pay for. It’s not rocket science, but it’s entertaining and full of tornado-oriented thrills, which explains why it was a huge hit at the box office. The movie runs 1 hour, 53 minutes, and was shot in Oklahoma (Guthrie and Ponca City), Iowa (Boone and Ames) and Bolton, Ontario. GRADE: B

<em>'Twister'</em> makes for fun viewing. There's a good chance that this was one of the (if not <em>the</em>) first films that I ever watched, it was released a mere few months after my birth and I have a faint memory of watching it on video as a young kid, I remember my mum had taped it and it was recorded back-to-back with a random music concert that was also on TV at the time - I can still picture myself seeing it switch from the film to the music. With that said, if I did indeed watch it at that time and it wasn't just a memory of actually checking out the concert itself or perhaps someone else doing either/or, I don't recall anything about this movie - not one jot. I did know the general gist of the film though (hard not to, rather self-explanatory!) and that Bill Paxton was in it. The movie itself is entertaining, if naturally not perfect. The special effects have aged, for 1996, rather well, there's a couple of goofy looking moments but again, for its time it's more than adequate. The score is pleasant too. I didn't overly like the lover's quarrel, in fact it kinda annoyed me in parts; Melissa is written weakly, there's kinda no need for Jami Gertz's character to even exist given what (predictably) happens. Helen Hunt puts in a strong showing, probably the standout of the near two hours. Paxton, of course, runs her close in that regard too. Lois Smith and Philip Seymour Hoffman are the ones who stick out most away from Hunt and Paxton. Cary Elwes features too, albeit quite forgettably. Eager to see what they do for this year's standalone sequel with Glen Powell & Co. Based on snippets of the trailer I've seen, I reckon it'll be just as good - if not slightly better - as this original. Time will tell.

OK, so the human story here is a bit on the predictable side but it's still quite an entertaining action adventure that allows the visual effects folks to have some fun with tornadoes. It's "Jo" (Helen Hunt) who has come up with some magical silver balls to insert into the eye of these phenomena with a view to tracking them and hopefully discovering a way to disarm them - assuming they can get close enough. Her husband "Bill" (Bill Paxton) meantime, is trying to get her to sign off on their divorce so he can marry his gal "Melissa" (Jamie Gertz) but before he can secure her signature, the trio and some of her eclectic band of colleagues find themselves not only chasing these increasingly violent winds but pursuing their duplicitous competitor "Miller" (Cary Elwes) who has "borrowed" some of her ideas and is keen to beat her to the prize. What now ensues sees loads of flying furniture, buildings, trucks and even the odd cow that still manages to moo in panic as it flies through the sky making it's own brand of yoghurt as it goes. It's that tongue in cheek approach to storytelling that works well here and that is really well supported by Paxton, Hunt, a cheesily hammy effort from Philip Seymour Hoffman and an engaging damsel-in-distress performance from a Gertz who actually looks like she's enjoying herself amidst what must have been a surfeit of greenscreen, foliage, water and industrial scale fans. It's a tense and quite exciting natural disaster movie that I will proudly admit to enjoying more than I expected.