BEFORE: David Corenswet carries over from "Affairs of State", and I think we can all try to forget about THAT film, I know Mr. Corenswet has probably tried to. I was very concerned that adding THAT film was going to push me over the limit this year, that I'd get to Christmas and wish that I could fit in JUST ONE more film, and then I'd have a bad flashback to dropping in such a terrible film.
So I had to do it, I had to find the path to Christmas movies. It's a bit hard to swallow, here it is the middle of August, it's still 80 degrees outside, and I know how to get to my holiday films. Sad, really, I've got nothing more important in my life. JK. But it's also comforting, I KNOW that I can get there, and I'll have "no regerts" at the end of Movie Year 17. As if. Like I said, I have two paths for late September, and with one simple add they now both have the same number of steps. I think I'll take the path less traveled by, because I've heard that can make all the difference - so it's the one with the sports films (we've now got boxing, wrestling, football, baseball, and golf on the docket) and less of those eerie psycho-thrillers that have been known to wear on me if I watch too many of them. There'll be plenty of time in October for dark and creepy material.
So let's look at the bright side, I've got a framework now that gets me through, and so from now on if I want to add something at the last minute, I've got to delete something. And vice versa, like there's one film I'm not sure belongs in November, it might be more of a February thing, so I should have a replacement standing by. I'll maybe have to revise the plan for December when I get there, but there will be new films streaming by then, so it could be a whole new ball game. I've got back-ups for my back-ups so I should be OK. And look what's coming up, like three time-travel films, "The Brutalist", "Saturday Night", horror films and (eventually) FIVE Christmas movies.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Twister" (Movie #458)
THE PLOT: Kate Carter, a retired tornado chaser and meteorologist, is persuaded to return to Oklahoma to work with a new team and new technologies.
AFTER: Well, it just goes to show you that there isn't a Hollywood hit from the past that they CAN'T make a sequel to, even if it's 28 years later and none of the original actors want to be along for the ride (or they're dead, and they just can't work it into their schedule). Other films from that year included "Independence Day", "101 Dalmatians", "Fargo" and the first "Mission: Impossible" movie - all of those had sequels on movie or TV screens. "The Rock" had no sequel, but hey, maybe now there's a chance. Hey, how is "Platoon 2" coming along?
There's plenty of action here as Kate is part of TWO teams, five years apart, that both chase tornados, but for slightly different reasons. The first time, she wants to test a theory that launching a very absorbent polymer directly into a tornado will cause it to lose all of its water, and therefore (theoretically) dispel it. No water, no momentum, no tornado, no damage to life and property. Well, it's a nice theory, anyway, but it doesn't seem to work, at least not against a class-5 tornado - the team got caught a little bit off guard there, they were expecting a class-1 so I guess they just didn't bring enough polymer? Several of her team members are sucked into the tornado, so I guess we all know what happens to them (they go to Oz?).
Following the disaster, Kate goes into a guilt-fueled depression, and moves to New York and takes a desk job with the national weather service. She'll fit in just fine, probably half of all New Yorkers are working remedial desk jobs while they're working through their past traumas. Prove me wrong. But her former teammate Javi tracks her down, he's been through military service and is now working for a mobile tornado radar company, and he wants her expert help in predicting tornadoes to test a new scanner, somehow if they could just get a super-clear scan of a tornado, maybe somehow they could find another way to stop them? I guess nobody ever thought of this before or something? I don't know, it's a bit unclear. I think it might just be easier to get everyone to move out of the state of Oklahoma, that would certainly cut down on tornado casualties. Just saying. Another solid plan would be to get people to stop dieting and exercising and using Ozempic, because being skinny in Oklahoma is probably a death sentence during hurricane season. Fat people are just less likely to be swept away by strong winds. #science
They arrive in Oklahoma in time for tornado season, and find that it's a whole circus - storm chasers have come from all over the country, but they don't have Kate's ability to read the wind and the atmospheric conditions to determine where they're GOING to be. This is maybe a bit unclear too, they keep saying that there's so much that is unknown about tornadoes, but she sure seems to know A LOT, so, umm, which is it? Do we know a lot or do we not know a lot? One crew chasing the storms is led by Tyler Owens, who's known as the "Tornado Wrangler" on YouTube, and, well, he's cocky and flashy and obnoxious, so yeah, some real love-interest material there, you know how these things go. He seems to have much better funding than the radar company does, so I guess he monetized his YouTube channel? But then he just blew that money on a pick-up truck that can anchor itself into the ground and launch rockets up into the tornado. #squadgoals
I went back and re-read my review of "Twister" from just the 2nd year of this project, back then and I had a quibble about a crew setting up the tornado equipment by unloading it from a pick-up truck, THEN turning it on and THEN driving away. The very same NITPICK POINT applies here, why not set up the equipment on a trailer, turn it on, check the settings and put it on a trailer, so you can drive it into position, it's all ready to do, then just unhook the trailer and drive away? We see them using trailers in this film to deliver other materials to the tornado, so don't tell me this isn't possible. Look, I'm not an expert on tornado equipment, I have no idea, really, but I'm a natural problem-solver. Clearly there's a problem with setting up the sensor that needs to go right in the path of the tornado for some reason, and they were fully expecting it to get blown away because they put a GPS tracker on it, but I solved the problem with the equipment you already have. You're welcome. And if you're making a sequel, please read my old reviews for the plot points that need to be fixed, please. #likeandsubscribe
As the film progresses, Kate's attitude about the different crews and their approaches changes, she initially dismisses the "Tornado Wrangler" crew as a bunch of profiteering glory-hounds, but she learns that the money raised by selling t-shirts gets spent on feeding tornado victims. Also she begins to question the motives of the StormPAR company, when she learns that its CEO is known for buying up land parcels after tornado victims decide to sell. So yeah, she kind of does a complete turn-around and then decides to hang out with the fun crew, and the fact that its leader is rather attractive and is also smarter than she thought might be playing into her decision as well. Remember, love is not the opposite of hate, not really - she might find over time that she has more in common with the guy who initially turned her off by coming on too strong.
There's also an ethical debate here about whether financial aid and other efforts are better spent aiding victims or trying to prevent disasters in the first place - however, there's no clear answer so, really, why even bring up the question, then? Oh, right, you probably came here because you wanted to see that mile-wide tornado that also happens to be on fire after destroying a refinery. That's so dangerous that even Javi drops everything and heads to the nearest town to make sure that people seek the appropriate shelter. When there's not enough underground shelter for everyone, they herd up the townspeople and put them in the local theater. Still, the tornado's headed right for it, unless Kate can use a combination of her polymer experiment with some cloud-seeding rockets launched from the Tornado Wrangler's pick-up. #WCPGW?
This was one of the movies that "saved" the movie theater industry last year, along with "Deadpool & Wolverine", I remember there was a lot of hype for it as one of the big summer blockbusters of 2024. But really it was only top 20, at least 5 movies made twice as much as this one, including "Wicked" and "Moana 2" and even "Despicable Me 4". I guess movies that are aimed at children and parents just make more money, because if people go out to see "Twisters", they're probably not bringing the kids, or they don't have kids to begin with. But parents bringing all their kids to the theater to see "Inside Out 2", that's kind of where the real money is these days. Right? #mathing
Directed by Lee Isaac Chung (director of "Minari")
Also starring Daisy Edgar-Jones (last seen in "Where the Crawdads Sing"), Glen Powell (last seen in "Ride Along 2"), Anthony Ramos (last seen in "Honest Thief"), Brandon Perea (last seen in "Nope"), Maura Tierney (last seen in "Beautiful Boy"), Harry Hadden-Paton (last seen in "About Time"), Sasha Lane (last seen in "Hellboy (2019)), Daryl McCormack, Kiernan Shipka, Nik Dodani (last seen in "Dear Evan Hansen"), Tunde Adebimpe (last seen in "Marriage Story"), Katy O'Brian (last seen in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania"), David Born (last seen in "Killers of the Flower Moon"), Paul Scheer (last seen in "A Disturbance in the Force"), Laura Poe (last seen in "Arlington Road"), Austin Bullock, Stephen Oyoung (last seen in "Paddleton"), Alex Kingi (last seen in "Vice" (2018)), Chris Adrien, Jeff Swearingen, James Paxton (last seen in "Term Life"), Lily Smith, Austin Brooks, Darryl Cox (last seen in "Minari"), Douglas Seok, Ben Snow, Ashley Jay Sandberg, Capri O'Neill, Livia Chung, Chris Zurcher (last seen in "Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood", Jennifer Rader
RATING: 7 out of 10 funnel cakes sold at the rodeo
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