In this week’s Criticize This! we take a look at an epic disaster movie, a heartfelt gay western (no, not that new Kevin Costner bomb), and a “scary” movie that really shouldn’t be in the horror genre.

THE BIG ONE

It’s big, it’s loud, it’s a massive Hollywood disaster movie! Yes, Twisters is here and it lives up to all the expectations fans of the first Twister might be hoping for, and then some.

While Twister was amazing at the time it was released (and still holds up quite well as you’ll see in our 4K Blu-ray review below), the special effects in Twisters are way more believable, which allows the film to cause even crazier and more awesome damage (and isn’t that what we all want in an epic disaster movie?).

We’re not just spewing fanboy hype because we have a soft spot for disaster movies. Twisters currently has a 77% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with a 93% audience rating at the time of this writing. It also has a 7.1 out of 10 on the IMDb.

In his review for Movie Scene Canada, Darren Zakus said Twisters is “one exhilarating, astonishing and highly entertaining film that captures the magic of the disaster genre.”

Zakus also praises the two stars of the movie, Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing) and Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Hit Man), for their “magnificent lead performances.”

Edgar-Jones sold us on her character right away, but it took a bit for us to warm up to Powell as his character is introduced as an overly obnoxious doofus, and it was pretty cringe to watch at first. By the end we were rooting for him though, and that is a sign of a great actor.

Surprisingly, none of the negative reviews focus on the science in the film (read more on that in this article on Nature.com), but instead on the lack of story (um, it’s a disaster movie) or poor chemistry between the two leads (we didn’t feel this was the case at all).

The best bad review comes from Rachel’s Reviews, which points out that people in Oklahoma know better than to be outside doing things during the risk of a tornado (but then we wouldn’t get to see people getting sucked up into the sky, Rachel).

Our take: Twisters is a true to form summer blockbuster. See it in the biggest, loudest theatre you can and let yourself be entertained by the spectacle of it.

Twisters is now in theatres.

IN THEATRES

National Anthem

Luke Gilford’s National Anthem is a beautiful “queer cowboy oasis” about finding yourself and your community. It has a well-deserved 91% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, with stars Charlie Plummer and Eve Lindley getting much praise for their raw and vulnerable performances that will resonate with, and welcome, many viewers into this world. National Anthem is playing in select theatres across Canada.

TOP BOX OFFICE

1. Despicable Me 4
2. Longlegs
3. Inside Out 2

STREAMING

The Dead Don’t Hurt (VOD)

Viggo Mortensen’s second outing in the director’s chair, The Dead Don’t Hurt is an extremely slow-moving film that fans of westerns will get more out of than the average viewer (it has a critics score of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes with an audience score of only 67%, which is very telling). Mortensen also stars, but it’s supporting actors Vicky Krieps, Garret Dillahunt, Danny Huston, and Solly McLeod who make it worth watching all the way through.

The Exorcism (VOD)

The Exorcism is not as dreadful as the majority of reviews make it out to be (and they are bad), but overall it’s a bloated Russell Crowe snooze-fest that shouldn’t be categorized as a horror movie. Also, is anyone else getting tired of people in movies brushing off very weird things happening to characters because they are a recovering drug addict or alcoholic? Like, I’m sorry, but people don’t twist their heads backwards and do spider crawls no matter how high or drunk they are!

Also streaming this week: Young Woman and the Sea is on Disney+, Find Me Falling is on Netflix, My Spy: The Eternal City is on Prime Video, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is on Crave, and Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 and Cora Bora are on VOD platforms.

COMING SOON

It seems Elevation Pictures is becoming the home for interesting (i.e. weird) movies in Canada. Earlier this year they released Caitlin Cronenberg’s awesome directorial debut, Humane, and just last week they gave us Longlegs (you can read our thoughts on it in our July 12 newsletter). Cuckoo, starring Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), seems to fit into this bizarre film lineup perfectly as it looks absolutely bananas! We’ll know for sure when it hits theatres on August 9.

Check out the trailer for Cuckoo on our YouTube channel and tell us if you’re excited for this one or not?

4K BLU-RAY

Twister set off the disaster movie trend in the ’90s, and no other film at the time came close to being as fun, exciting, and somehow relatable as it was.

From the opening scene, which stills gives us chills, to the famous cow flying bit, the movie works on many different levels thanks to the amazing stacked cast (Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cary Elwes, Alan Ruck, and Jamie Gertz are all in this movie in case you forgot!).

Special effects have come a long way since 1996 (see Twisters above), so there are many scenes in Twister that now look dated and cheesy, especially to a younger audience. But even those moments are excellent to watch on the remastered 4K Blu-ray transfer as they have a sharp, clean look that give them new life.

What truly makes Twister worth adding to your 4K Blu-ray collection is the amazing Dolby TrueHD 7.1 sound mix, which really does make you feel like you’re in the middle of a tornado (it might also scare your neighbours depending how loud you play it).

Special features on the 4K Blu-ray include a new retrospective featurette called ‘Legacy of the Wind – Taken by the Wind’, audio commentary with director Jan de Bont and VFX supervisor Stefen Fangmeier, the music video for Van Halen’s ‘Humans Being’, and previously released making-of and behind-the-scenes videos.

The 4K Blu-ray for Twister is currently available to purchase on Amazon.ca for $39.99.

Other recent 4K Blu-ray titles worth checking out include The Boy and the Heron, Civil War, The Fifth Element, and Training Day.

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