Michael Crichton

‘Twister’ Movie and 4K Review

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

The following review was written by Ultimate Rabbit correspondent, Tony Farinella.

“Twister” is a film that is currently celebrating its 28th anniversary.  It raises two important questions—where has time gone, and when did I become old?  Watching “Twister” for the first-time since its release, it is clear this is a quintessential 1990’s action flick—you have your movie stars, your big budget, and your special effects.  If you are able to shut off your brain and sit back and enjoy the ride, there is plenty to like here. If you are looking for logic or a complex story, you have come to the wrong movie.  Your enjoyment level of this movie is solely dependent on your ability to suspend your disbelief when it comes to flying cows and off-the-wall tornadoes.

In the opening scene, we see a young woman named Jo Harding who unfortunately loses her father in an F5 tornado. This has stayed with her well until her adult life, as she is now entrenched in the world of tornadoes as a professional storm chaser.  She is going through a divorce with her weatherman husband named Bill, played by the late Bill Paxton.  He is hoping she will sign the rest of their divorce papers, so he can finally marry Dr. Melissa Reeves, a reproductive therapist, played by Jami Gertz. Jo (Helen Hunt), however, is dragging her feet as she still has feelings for Bill.  They soon find themselves in a situation where they need to work together in order to survive because a massive tornado is coming their way.

Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton star in Twister.

Jo and Bill have created a storm-device called Dorothy, which can predict if a storm is happening fifteen minutes ahead of time as opposed to the usual three minutes. This will give people more time to prepare for a tornado and make sure they find a safe haven for them and their loved ones.  It needs to get close to a tornado in order for the sensors inside of it to track any weather data. Jo has also assembled a talented team which includes Dustin Davis (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Rabbit (Alan Ruck). The scene stealer here is Philip Seymour Hoffman. I would describe him as Jeff Spicoli if he ever pursued a career as a storm-chaser, and he steals every scene he’s in throughout.  He’s hilarious, charming and off-the-wall.

“Twister” is an incredibly entertaining action picture that works because of the jaw-dropping special effects and its likable cast. Helen Hunt, in particular, is great as a strongly written female character dealing with grief and trauma by trying to make sure no one ever experiences what she went through as a child. Bill Paxton is a cheesy goofball who doesn’t see what’s right in front of him and the fact he’s better off with Jo. Jami Gertz takes a thankless role as the “other woman” and makes it work to where the audience still likes her, even though we’d rather see Jo and Bill together. 

The special effects and tornado scenes are expected to deliver in a film like “Twister,” and they do not disappoint.  The film is wise to take some time to have the characters interact with one another, so that when the storm scenes kick up a notch, we care about what happens to the participants. They also build up the storm scenes so when they happen, we are waiting for them and are emotionally invested.  “Twister” was directed by Jan de Bont, who had previously directed 1993’s “Speed.” He knows how to blend the action scenes in with the character scenes in an effortless way, and he hits the right balance throughout.  After not seeing the film for over two decades, one of my concerns was it would be too action heavy.  I’m glad to see he strikes the right chord with his direction. It helps that the film was co-written by Michael Crichton, the smart and talented author and screenwriter.

“Twister”is about fifteen minutes too long, and sometimes there are too many characters here, some of which I did not mention.  It’s not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination. However, for a big-budget action flick, it’s exactly what it needs to be and then some.  As mentioned earlier, there is a build-up to the storm scenes, which are bonkers and over-the-top.  It’s about making the little scenes and the big scenes matter and co-exist together in harmony.  It’s also about having fun.  There is a lot of fun to be had with “Twister” even in 2024.  It’s an entertaining action film with some big laughs and even bigger explosions.

* * * ½ out of * * * *

4K Info: “Twister” is released on a single disc 4K from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment. The film has a running time of 117 minutes and is rated PG-13 for intense depiction of very bad weather. This release also comes with a digital copy of the film along with a really cool looking slipcover.

4K Video:  This is one of my favorite 4K releases of the year from a visual standpoint.  It looks gorgeous, clear, and vivid. When I think of this movie, I think of the colors.  The colors really pop here, especially when the sky outside is green.  It’s a tremendous looking 4K and it’s an early candidate for one of the best 4K releases of the year.

Audio Info:  The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is a fantastic touch here, as this is a big screen movie that is being brought right into your home theater.  This film was made for 4K.  The big scenes feel big with this Dolby Atmos track.  It sounded perfect.  It wasn’t too boisterous or in-your-face, but it gets the point across in an effective manner.  They did a great job here, too.

Special Features:

The Legacy of Twister – Taken by the Wind (NEW)

Chasing the Storm: Twister Revisited

Anatomy of a Twister

The Making of Twister

Van Halen Music Video – “Humans Being”

Commentary by director Jan de Bont and visual effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier

Should You Buy It?

HECK YES! If you enjoy a good action flick in 4K, “Twister”is exactly why they made this format in the first place. It’s the movie you show your friends and family when you are trying to convince them to switch from Blu-ray to 4K.  It also comes with a brand-new special feature, which is rare on catalog titles from studios. You also have the previously released Blu-ray special features, so you can keep the 4K and have everything that came with the Blu-ray as well.  It’s the best of both worlds.  Even though this film looks and feels like a 1990’s summer blockbuster, I found it to be a blast because it holds up well while also being a good nostalgia piece as well.  If I were you, I’d buy this film on day one of its release. It comes highly recommended.

**Disclaimer** I received a copy of this film from Warner Brothers to review for free.  The opinions and statements in the review are mine and mine alone.

‘Jurassic Park’ – Michael Crichton’s Novel vs Steven Spielberg’s Film

Posted on by The Ultimate Rabbit

Michael Crichton’s book “Jurassic Park” served as a cautionary tale on scientists’ tampering with biology as they bring dinosaurs back to life without thinking about the consequences of their actions. When Steven Spielberg adapted it to the silver screen in what turned out to be a genuinely thrilling movie, much of it was changed and details were omitted to make it the kind of audience pleasing movie he was best known for making at the time. He doesn’t delve as much into the darker side of Crichton’s characters and made them more likable, and the changes proved impossible to miss.

Working with David Koepp, who got screenwriting credit along with Crichton, Spielberg developed the cartoon the main characters watch during the park tour to remove much of the exposition found in the book. Crichton goes into extensive detail about how dinosaurs were recreated using their DNA which ends up being found in mosquitoes trapped in fossilized tree resin. Despite many scientists saying it is impossible to create dinosaurs in this way, it still makes for a very compelling story.

Koepp also cut out a sequence from the book which had Grant and Hammond’s grandchildren being chased down the river by the Tyrannosaurus. This was done for budgetary reasons, but this dinosaur would later appear in “Jurassic Park III.”

The book also had a sub-plot about young children getting attacked by small theropod dinosaurs, but Spielberg cut this out because he found it too horrific. However, that same sub-plot would be used to start off the movie version of “Jurassic Park: The Lost World.”

When it came to the characters, some of the biggest changes occurred with John Hammond, the curator of Jurassic Park. The book describes him as a ruthless businessman who is arrogant, deceptive, utterly disrespectful, and thoughtlessly rude. Even though he eventually comes to see the consequences of his experiments, he still moves ahead with his plans in the name of profit. He is even willing to sacrifice his grandchildren to the dinosaurs if that’s what it takes.

In the movie where Hammond is portrayed by Sir Richard Attenborough, he is instead an eccentric and friendly old man who is caught up in the wonder of what he has helped bring to life. However, he eventually realizes he cannot control the dinosaurs and is desperate to see his grandchildren brought back safely. This change came about because Spielberg very much related to Hammond’s obsession with showmanship.

Dr. Alan Grant, played by Sam Neil, is shown to like kids and enjoys being around them in the book. However, the movie has him being not the least bit fond of them. This change was made to give Grant more room for character development as he comes to be the father figure Hammond’s grandchildren lack when things go wrong.

Ellie Sattler, played by Laura Dern, is described as a 23-year old graduate student of Grant’s who is planning to get married to someone other than him. In the movie, she is Grant’s love interest and hopes he will one day be open to having children with her.

Jeff Goldblum gave a scene stealing performance as chaos theorist Ian Malcolm, and he gives Spielberg’s film the bulk of its comic relief. Crichton, however, wrote Malcolm as being more serious, philosophical, and at times downright condescending. Unlike the movie, Malcolm is killed off at the end of the book, but in the follow-up book “The Lost World” he is revealed to have survived.

One character that got drastically downsized was Dr. Henry Wu who is played by B.D. Wong. Crichton has him providing much of the detail about how the dinosaurs are cloned, and he stays on the island and is eventually killed off while the movie has him heading off to the mainland where he survives, and he was the only actor from this movie to appear in “Jurassic World.”

The lawyer Donald Gennaro, one of the movie’s greediest and thoughtless characters, comes across as rather likable in the way Crichton writes him. While he becomes something of a scapegoat towards the end, he is the one most insistent on the island being destroyed to protect the rest of the world from these dinosaurs. But in the movie, he is ever so eager to exploit the park’s profit potential any which way he can.

Then there are Hammond’s grandchildren, Lex and Tim, who are along for the tour of the island as well. In the book, Tim is the oldest of two at 11 years old and is good with computers while Lex is only 7 and more into sports. Spielberg switched these characters around to where Lex was the oldest, and he did this in order to cast Joseph Mazzello as Tim. Ariana Richards plays Lex, and she’s the more into computers and helps save the main characters in one critical scene.

Looking back at “Jurassic Park” the movie, it was the last time Spielberg adapted a book and changed the characters to where they were likable and easier for audiences to spend time with. His next movie was “Schindler’s List” which had him exploring one of the darkest periods of human history, and making it had a major effect on the movies he directed afterwards. When it came to turning “The Lost World” into a movie, Spielberg was more willing to embrace the darker aspects Crichton explored intensely in his books, and this was something readers wished he had done with the first movie.