TWISTER (30)

Directed by: Jan de Bont

Starring: Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, Jami Gertz

The Pitch: Weather scientists chase tornados across the Midwest.

Theo Sez: Only the big, spectacular climax delivers. The rest is a quite alarmingly thin tale, in which our heroes race frantically across the Midwest attempting to place stuff in tornados' paths - which, tornados being such infamous swallowers-up of anything in the vicinity, would seem to be incredibly simple. Unfortunately, these tornados peskily refuse to be interested in anything not placed ju-u-ust so within inches of their maw, which (for some reason) necessitates the existence of an entire Team, shouting encouragement to the protagonists from a safe distance, giving us much-needed exposition, and generally providing kick-ass Attitude in a vain (and tedious) attempt to hide the many gaps and deficiencies. The characters are dull, the entire supporting cast - notably Gertz, in the year's most thankless role - have absolutely nothing to do, the action is repetitive and even the raison d'etre, the expensive FX, are actually a bit unimaginative most of the time. These tornados (at least to someone with no experience of real tornados) all look pretty much the same, without the distinctiveness of, say, the dinosaurs in JURASSIC PARK - though they're undoubtedly a relief from the bits of sub-sitcom banter in between.