What a silly movie. A bunch of reckless tornado chasers go about trying to catch up to twisters even though they know how dangerous and futile the enterprise is. If there were more the the plot than that, I might accept their derring-do as engaging character flaws - unfortunately, the story really begins and ends right there.
There are, of course, several of the apparently necessary Hollywood cliches. There is a romance between Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, which is clumsily drawn out, and a kind of side-story involving Cary Elwes as a bad guy (bad mainly because he is a tornado chaser who is financed by a corporation, and therefore he is a reckless idiot for the money, not for the pure motives of our heroes). But a monkey typing randomly on a keyboard labeled with B-movie staples could have strung together a better plot - and probably more interesting characters as well.
Most people thought that the tornado effects were stupendous - indeed the film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and for Best Sound. OK, they're loud and pretty inventive, but all in all they weren't anything spectacular. THE MATRIX or TITANIC - now that's spectacular. This was spectacle, but not spectacular.
There are, of course, several of the apparently necessary Hollywood cliches. There is a romance between Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, which is clumsily drawn out, and a kind of side-story involving Cary Elwes as a bad guy (bad mainly because he is a tornado chaser who is financed by a corporation, and therefore he is a reckless idiot for the money, not for the pure motives of our heroes). But a monkey typing randomly on a keyboard labeled with B-movie staples could have strung together a better plot - and probably more interesting characters as well.
Most people thought that the tornado effects were stupendous - indeed the film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and for Best Sound. OK, they're loud and pretty inventive, but all in all they weren't anything spectacular. THE MATRIX or TITANIC - now that's spectacular. This was spectacle, but not spectacular.