Twisters (2024)

Despite the recent wave of nostalgic affection for it, Twister was never a movie that I considered great. It wasn't bad, and I have some amount of goodwill for any blockbuster that gives a lead role to Bill Paxton, but it wasn't up there alongside the many other disaster movies that came along after it. So I wasn't very keen to see this sorta-sequel (there's a bit of machinery used that was in the first film, and there are twisters, of course, but that covers all of the main connections). Thankfully, I had a partner very keen to see this, which is how I can now be glad that I saw it on the big screen, because this is blockbuster fun. 

Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kate, a young woman who retired from the tornado-chasing game after an incident that left her scarred and traumatised while trying to come up with a way to "kill" tornadoes. She now works in meteorology, in an environment that makes use of her intelligence and intuitive ability to read the weather, and hopes to stay far away from lively and huge tornadoes. That plan changes when she is approached by an old friend, Javi (Anthony Ramos), who wants Kate to help him capture some vital tornado data with the help of her natural talent and some cutting-edge technology. That puts them in competition with Tyler (Glen Powell) though. Tyler is a YouTube sensation, a cowboy daredevil, and a minor celebrity with a major ego. He might have a bit more to him though, hidden behind the cowboy hat and super-charged grin. He might even help Kate to finally realise her tornado-killing dream.

Written by Mark L. Smith, a decent enough talent working here to flesh out a story by Joseph Kosinski, Twisters is actually very smart and well-constructed, considering the type of movie it is. It delivers the required exposition via character moments, instead of in one unexciting info-dump, and it makes some interesting points about the need to stop being so passive in a world that has become increasingly hostile to many of the people living in it. It also nicely inverts the formula of the first film in a few different ways, but does so while absolutely sticking to the blockbuster movie formula you expect when you buy your ticket.

Director Lee Isaac Chung may not seem like the obvious fit for the material, considering the previous features he has helmed, but he goes all out here to deliver a slice of undiluted Americana. The scenery, the soundtrack full of lively Country music, the way in which Powell's character continues to deal with the tornadoes as beasts to be wrangled, this is a laid-back Western, in many ways, with a tornado set to be the main villain due in town for a shoot-out scheduled for High Noon. That undersells the film though, because it's also very funny. This is a fun and funny film, one that keeps entertainment front and centre. Like many modern day blockbusters, the runtime clocks in at just over two hours. Unlike many other films, however, this doesn't feel overlong. The pacing is perfect, and part of the reason for that is the timing of Glen Powell's entrance, about 20-30 minutes into the runtime.

There's no need to go on and on about Powell trying to become a star. Powell is a star. He has moments here that solidly underline that fact, and when he does his shimmy swagger at one point I coudln't help thinking of him as a demin-clad, stetson-wearing, male version of Jessica Rabbit. Powell feels like the lead here, to a degree, but it helps that Edgar-Jones is equal to him in their scenes together. She's smart, sassy, and continues to deal with trauma from her past that feels like something anyone would struggle to reconcile with. Ramos is fine as Javi, but neither he nor his main colleague, Scott (David Corensweet), are half as watchable as those who make up Tyler's troupe:Brandon Perea, Sasha Lane, Tunde Adebimpe, Katy O'Brian, and Harry Hadden-Paton (as Ben, a British journalist writing a piece on the star "tornado-wrangler"). Others appearing onscreen include Maura Tierney, David Born, Paul Scheer, Daryl McCormack, Nik Dodani, and Kiernan Shipka, but I won't tell you who gets a decent amount of screentime and who gets to cameo. Is the cast comparable to the group of actors we got in the original movie? No, but it's not too far off.

If you have seen or heard anything about Twisters and already suspect that you will hate it then you may well end up hating it. I would heartily recommend this to anyone after some full-blooded blockbuster fun though. It has human leads sparring with one another to be the brighter star, it has some great special effects also muscling in to be the star of the show, and it has a real eagerness to be absolutely entertaining from start to finish. I think it succeeds  . . . brilliantly.

8/10

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Overlord (2018)

If there's one thing we all know by now it's that Nazis would have made an army of zombie soldiers if they could have. The only thing worse than a Nazi is a zombie Nazi, and they have appeared in popular entertainment quite often over the past couple of decades. They appear here, but the plot chooses to focus on the very real horrors of war, first and foremost, with the standard genre thrills mixed in slowly but surely until brought to the surface for the third act.

Starting with a group of soldiers being airdropped into Germany, Overlord is a tense and visceral experience from the opening scenes. The skies are shredded with anti-aircraft gunfire, meaning that many of the young men are killed before they even get a chance to jump out of their craft. The ones that land are immediately in great danger, and it never gets easier. But the mission is a vital one, destroying a radio tower that has been causing all kinds of problems, to put it mildly. The soldiers find someone willing to help hide them, a young French woman named Chloe, they start to figure out how best to complete their mission, but it all becomes even more complicated when they discover bodies being experimented on and a serum that seems capable of creating mutated super-soldiers.

Written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith, it's intriguing to see that this was developed from a story idea from the former, who has a background in more varied dramatic works. Smith seems to be the horror guy, of the two, but both have worked well together in balancing the wartime tension with the pulpy entertainment aspects.

Director Julius Avery, working on what is only his second feature, does a great job with the material. It's often dark, and the action is frantic at times, but you never lose sight of the identity and location of the various characters, and the set-pieces are perfectly paced. Special effects are great throughout, impressively bizarre and bloody, but the focus stays on the main characters, even while horrific oddities start to multiply around them.

The cast are another big plus. Jovan Adepo and Wyatt Russell are the two main soldiers, with Russell being the one who ends up in charge after so many deaths in the first act, and both of them do excellent work (I'm not familiar with Adepo but have already come to expect excellence every time I see Russell onscreen). Mathilde Ollivier is equally good as Chloe, a determined survivor with loved ones to look after, and the main villain of the piece is played with relish by Pilou Asbæk. Other characters are portrayed by John Magaro, Iain De Caestecker, Jacob Anderson, Gianny Taufer (a standout as the younger brother of Chloe), and Dominic Applewhite.

There may be a little too much familiarity here, which might explain why there were so many mixed/lukewarm reviews when this was released in cinemas, but Overlord takes the elements that we've all seen elsewhere and blends them into a fantastic piece of genre entertainment, with impressive visuals and a score by Jed Kurzel that's also worth mentioning (I know, I know, I always forget to mention scores, and I constantly apologise for it).

8/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.