Review by Gary Tooze
Studio:
Theatrical: Warner Pictures
Blu-ray: Warner Home Video
Disc:
Region: FREE
Runtime: 1:52:43
Chapters: 34
Size: 50GB
Case: Standard Blu-ray case
Release date: May 6th, 2008
Video:
Aspect ratio: 2.4:1
Resolution: 1080P
Video codec: VC-1
Audio:
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English:
Dolby Digital 5.1, DUB: French: Dolby
Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English SDH, English, French, none
Extras:
• Commentary by Producer director De
Bont and Visual Effects Supervisor
Stefan Fangmeier
Featurettes:
• Chasing the Storm:
Twister Revisited
• HC Doc - Nature
Tech: Tornadoes
• Anatomy of a
Twister
• HBO First Look: The
Making of Twister
• Van Halen's
Humans Being Music Video
• Two theatrical trailers
Synopsis: The largest storm to
hit Oklahoma in more than half a century
is brewing, and it promises to drop
multiple twisters into Tornado Alley.
It's the storm that two rival groups of
scientists—Jo Harding and her band of
brash university students, and
corporate-sponsored Dr. Jonas Miller and
his sleek, crack cadre with their
state-of-the-art research vans—have been
waiting for to earn their place in
meteorological history. Each team wants
to be the first to launch their own
equipment pack inside a twister to
transmit valuable scientific data about
tornado behavior. But to do so, they
must put themselves directly in the path
of the marauding monster—and stay always
just ahead of the swirling twister,
anticipating its every move. Adding to
the charged atmosphere, Jo's
soon-to-be-ex-husband, meteorologist
Bill Harding, reluctantly joins Jo and
his old crew for this last, epic chase.
The Film:
Effects apart, this is dire:
predictable, clichéd, sloppily written,
pitifully performed and surprisingly
short of real shocks and suspense. The
story can be described in two ways: as a
rip-off of Only Angels Have Wings, in
which Paxton's implausibly intuitive
tornado expert is torn between two
women, his ex (Hunt) and his fiancée (Gertz),
and two lives, a safe weatherman job, or
a risky return to the group of crazily
devoted storm-chasers trying to get a
gizmo up inside a twister's 'suck-zone';
or as a repetitive spectacle where all
that happens is that the objects hurled
around in the air simply get bigger.
Forget the many redundant references to
The Wizard of Oz, this hasn't a
fraction of that movie's logic,
imagination or ambitions. Seriously
depressing.
Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located
HERE
Image: I may be slightly biased
as I am not a fan of this film to any
degree, but this dual-layered Blu-ray
didn't hold up to my visual
expectations. Ushering in a new wave of
special effects at the time - this film
(only just over 10 years old now) seems
quite dated in that area and the
anticipated appearance on the grandeur
of 1080P leaves a bit to be desired. I
have no doubt as to the improvement over
the 2-disc standard-definition
(simultaneously
released) but aside from a more
pronounced color palette and some
occasionally attractive detail - like
the film, it is not fulfilling any
perceived promise of entertainment. Now,
saying that, it is quite competent,
without major flaw (noise is very
minimal) but the image just never 'wow'ed
me as so many of the new formats can
tend to do. Outdoor scenes can look
excellent - clear, clean, bright and
fairly sharp but the special effects
tend to look kind of fuzzy in hi-def and
as the film was carried almost
exclusively on that factor (flying cows
et all) - when that has you yawning,
this DVD doesn't have a lot of reason
for recommendation in my opinion.
Addendum (from
Leonard Norwitz):
As 480 resolution DVDs go, Warner's
first release of Twister was
pretty good looking. It still is, and
makes for fascinating, in some ways
inconclusive, comparison to this new
Blu-ray. There are differences in tonal
balance and contrast which sometimes
feels more right on one than the other.
I might summarize the differences this
way:
The BRD is darker in the dark scenes,
and brighter in the scenes in more
natural light. Also, the BRD is clearly
more yellow. This is perhaps nowhere
more curious than for "Dorothy" which
looks more metallic in the SD only
because of its color. There is a
smoother, more processed look to skin
tones on the Blu-ray. In the absence of
the original negative, I present these
comparisons for your personal
consideration.
Blu-ray TOP vs. SD-DVD BOTTOM
Blu-ray TOP vs. SD-DVD BOTTOM
Blu-ray TOP vs. SD-DVD BOTTOM
Blu-ray TOP vs. SD-DVD BOTTOM
Blu-ray TOP vs. SD-DVD BOTTOM
Blu-ray TOP vs. SD-DVD BOTTOM
Audio & Music: We are given a
lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track (and
similar French DUB) and standard 5.1
offering. It sounded quite good to my
ear. It's hard to give a frame of
reference as I was using some newish
speakers but there is some separation -
especially during the more 'devastating'
sequences and overall the TrueHD lives
up to anticipation. It is a notch up
from the rather unremarkable Blu-ray
image. Dialogue is obviously, very clean and
clear supported
by English (CC or stan.), or French subtitles.
Extras: I preferred the extras to
the film itself especially the
Anatomy of a Twister, and both the
History Channel and HBO documentaries.
The commentary was a bit painful, ditto
for the 'making of' as those involved
seemed to take the film a lot more
seriously than warranted. 'Twister'
whets the appetite for tornado
information and I actually wish there
was more factual details than presented
but it was decent to add the featurette
supplements - so good job on that front
Warner.
Bottom line: Well for those
expecting a 1080P treat, I am sorry to
be the bearer of bad news. The film, is
so silly, in itself it is approaching
'horrible' (I kind of like the 'hammy'
Paxton though) and the Blu-ray falls
decidedly short of contemporary examples
of, more modern, similar genre flicks
for image quality in this new format.
The extras are good but for those bent
purchasing this as a potential demo for
friends - there are many better examples
out there. So, that's a thumbs down from
this reviewer.
Gary Tooze + Leonard
Norwitz
April 26th, 2008
