Twister is a guilty pleasure for me. It is a completely silly movie, totally asinine in spots and crammed with the simplified characters and situations that a major studio deems pleasurable to Joe and Jane Average Viewer. It is a dumbed down movie filled with easy set pieces, contrite dialogue and situations that, if you stop at any given time to actually analyze what is unfolding before your eyes your head may explode in a shower of brain matter, Chinese  newspapers and apple cores.

But hands down, Twister is one of the goofiest, feel good experiences and it is exactly because of the rambling reasons listed above that this movie is such great fun. Not only do you have the rag tag group of disheveled everyman tornado chasers, but each one has their individual quirky character tic that makes them such a well rounded ensemble. Special praise goes to Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Dusty, or as I have christened him upon my first viewing in 1996 as “Fat Dusty,” who is easily one of the most annoying characters ever to grace a movie screen. We also have the immortal line, “I gotta go, we have cows!” uttered by Jami Gertz, who looks as awkward and out of place as her character must feel. Even Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton saddled in the “estranged couple that really still love each other” roles shine, but only when the “too cool for school” attitudes everyone else has doesn’t threaten to take over the whole movie.

The DVD in a bit of irony, since the original release of Twister was the very first movie to ever be released on DVD, the Twister Two Disc Special Edition comes to us loaded and looking better than ever! One of the major criticisms of the first release was the absolutely horrible video quality. Yes it was anamorphic widescreen, but the picture was such a muddled mess that artifacting was terrible whenever anything on the screen moved in any kind of fast motion. Basically any time there was a tornado or special effect on screen, the picture looked like garbage, also in part of the unneeded edge enhancement.

Contrasts were also a problem with too deep blacks which lacked any kind of detail and overexposed brights. There was also a problem with colors being over-saturated and not looking natural at all. This edition is a great improvement, with a new transfer with almost no trace of artifacting and less edge enhancement. The resulting image is a bit softer, yet smoother with colors which are more muted but natural and accurate. There is a surprising amount of
detail in dark scenes, and over all, there is an amazing improvement over the original transfer which would be reason enough to pick this up. The audio has been spruced up and it is crisp yet deep in all the right places.

Extras on this edition completely obliterate anything on the original release, which I believe consist of cast bios and a teaser trailer. This edition has an audio commentary between director Jan de Bont and Visual Effects Supervisor Stefan Fangmeir, which is mostly a production specific discussion which will interest only the most die hard fans. Also included is a brand new look back at Twister (which is a bit dry with a lot of self-congratulatory back patting), an HBO production of The Making of Twister (which is as empty and boring as it was back as a “First Look” in 1996 but now has the pleasure of being completely dated), a couple of featurettes on the natural makings of a twister (which were interesting if not filled with new information) and lastly a Van Halen music video for the song “Humans Being” which features in the actual movie at the most inappropriate moments. All things said, it is a loaded second disc with plenty of features to amuse all but the most unforgiving of viewers.

Even if you can believe that all these tornados touch down as frequently as they do in the movie, you’ll never believe that the same small group of people could wind up in the path of just about all of them. Special mentions go to the two twisters that not only seem to stalk our principal characters but actually seem to hunt down a dear family member.

As stated, this movie is silly and is beloved for the “so bad it’s good factor”. The fact that the whole movie and every single scenario is played with not only a straight face, but a somber mood and you‘ll see why it’s so easy to laugh at the movie’s expense.

Allow me one small gripe. If all the people we see fleeing or hiding from the tornados in the movie know that they live in an area that is constantly ravaged by twisters like something out of a skewed Biblical plague, then why don’t home owners actually go down to the local hardware store and invest in some self-tapping wood screws to keep their rickety doors on their tornado-safe shanties? I think it would save more money and be less of a heartache to better fortify their shelters than to watch a loved family member sucked into the sky by nature’s fury. Call me pessimistic, but if I lived in Tornado Alley, I would make sure that I had a safe haven to run to. But maybe that’s just me.

Before Tri-Star felt we did something to wrong them and unleashed the American Godzilla movie upon us as punishment, Twister’s director Jan De Bont was originally set to direct the then unmade American Godzilla remake. Among the many ideas which wound up better than anything in the actual movie, de Bont’s idea was of a woman scientist and her ex-husband tracking down Godzilla in an attempt to warn people of the danger he possesses. She
would be on a quest to avenge her father, who was killed by the beast, and to make sure no one would have to die by the beast again. There would be an evil scientist that, depending on the script draft you read, either wanted to exploit Godzilla as a weapon or get to study and kill Godzilla before the heroes complete their noble cause.

Flash forward and De Bont’s deal fell through. Many of the ideas worked on for the aborted Godzilla movie wound up, practically intact, in Twister. De Bont even planned on casting Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton for his Godzilla movie, but as they say, the rest is history.

Twister isn’t for everyone but if you like good, over-blown FX extravaganzas then you are going to love this movie. Now, Twister looks and sounds even better and is a worthy upgrade for any collection.

• Arbitrary MPAA Rating alert! Rated PG-13 for intense depiction of very bad weather. Ooga Booga!
• William is still waiting for the sequel: Let's Twist Again