Twister

<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.