Twister = good, Bill Paxton = bad

by Sam
(LA)

I'm from Kansas, so my favorite weather related movie will always be The Wizard of Oz. I can't help it. This is programmed into us at birth.

However, Twister is my favorite movie where they interact with the weather as opposed to running away from it.

I absolutely love Helen Hunt so I went and saw the movie even though I feared it would be horrible. To my surprise it wasn't.

True, it has its campy moments but for the most part you get a look into the extreme changes that can happen in a storm cell in the Midwest.

While I have never seen a cow flying around in the air, I have seen the aftermath of a storm touching down and it is very humbling to see the destruction it leaves behind.

When Helen Hunt finds out her mother is in the direct path of a tornado she can't help but hope that it shifts direction and misses her.

This article talks about how that could have happened and that it wasn't blind hope on the experienced weather person's prayer.

The tornado could have easily died down, shifted shape, or shifted course. The fact that it didn't meant that the reports were right and that the meteorologists know what they're talking about even if it sometimes feels like they don't have any better information than I would if I looked out the window.

I find it interesting that almost every type of wind shift was shown in Twister except for maybe deformation. Very good representation for a fictional movie.

I've also see The Day After Tomorrow and the weather aspect of the movie intrigued me because I am very concerned about the affects of Global Warming.

While I thought some of the made up drama was overdone, I did appreciate the special effects in terms of the floods, cold, and battle to survive the unexpected.

I think weather-related dramas or action films are actually underutilized. I think flood devastation or a typhoon hit would be especially impactful after Katrina.

Barry's Response Bill Paxton has done quite well in movies with scientific undercurrents. He plays the parts quite well. And I like this type of action film as well.



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