Product Details

• Actors: Harry Dean Stanton, Suzy Amis, Crispin Glover, Dylan McDermott, Jenny Wright
• Directors: Michael Almereyda
• Writers: Michael Almereyda, Mary Robison
• Producers: Dan Ireland, Wieland Schulz-Keil, William J. Quigley
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: November 18, 2003
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000CDLBC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,584 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Twister" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

TWISTER - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All it's Cracked Up to be, December 27, 2008

By 

W. R. Isaacs "Mojimbo" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Twister (DVD)

"Twister" is one of Jim Jarmusch's favorite films. It's definitely an art movie, and if you like Tarkowski, Jarmusch, Waters, Bunuel, Ozu, Hartley, Hellman, Kusturica, or Fellini, then you have probably already seen it. "Twister" makes fun of how we become deranged by the constant spinning junk-storm of ordinary existence. Worthless myths masquerade as idealistic dreams. The characters are screwed up (i.e. twisted), but decent, and plenty intelligent. Messed up, not dumb. Family, romance, suburban consumerism, television, the selling of absurd myths, crank their minds into bozo balloons. The smily-face story lady on TV is Mom, and Dad is Lash LaRue (a whip wielding actor in '50s westerns.) Watch and sympathize as the son (Glover) tries to convince Dad that he should like gazpacho. It's a cold, funny, pathetic, compassionate, and tough scene.

By most standards, five stars would be fair. However, I actually dread inflating the category of films like "Red Beard", "City Lights", and "Dawns Here are Quiet", forgetting such transcendence is possible. Four stars, or, very very good, will have to suffice.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars as great as you want it to be...., June 19, 2006

By 

Douglas M. May - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Twister (DVD)

This movie is an interesting snapshot of some gifted actors in the late 1980's. Tim Robbins, who appears briefly in a cameo, obviously went on to have a major career. Crispin Glover found a unique niche of his own as an on- and off-screen eccentric. Suzy Amis appeared in a succession of minor roles and disappeared from movie screens. But more than that, Twisted in its entirety represents one of the signal artistic successes of that largely reactionary decade.

This is a film that can be watched as pure entertainment, and indeed it is hugely entertaining watching the Clevelands lurch from one catastrophe to another. But beyond that, it is filled with an unforgettable sequence of cinematic images: the opening shot of Violet dragging a vacuum cleaner across an empty field; the scene where Dylan McDermott deflates a large inflatable dinosaur with a smoldering cigarette butt; the plastic lizard that keeps migrating from one body of water to another; the voyeuristic helicopter; the golf shot from the widow's walk of the mansion; a lawn table floating in a swimming pool, a giant mascot lying in the wreckage spawned by a tornado. These images are precisely and beautifully composed but they are never presented as obvious symbols or filmic metaphors. Instead, they just exist alongside the capricious whims and behaviors of the Cleveland kids.

And that's not all. This is one of the few movies I can remember in which there is frequently no distinction between diagetic and non-diagetic musics. During the early interior scenes, the attentive listener will note that Milt Jackson has been tied up in the Cleveland's basement and administered a large dose of psilocybin--or so it sounds. Clearly, no Muzak could possibly sound like this, and so the question is: where is it coming from, what is it, and what does it mean?

The film of course does have a theme. It's the familiar old tale of materialism gone awry. The Clevelands, by virtue of their wealth, have been insulated from both the effects of nature and the consequences of their actions. A tornado destroys a nearby town while the Cleveland's revival mansion is spared. Howdy and Mo vacillate between morose withdrawal and sudden violent outbursts, with no concern for those around them, and yet survive in the bowels of their bloated affluence. And in the end, Lola--the moral center of a movie without a moral center--goes off with the rich and dissembling patriarch rather than remaining with the monstrous children as their surrogate mother. Can't say I blame her there.

This movie would be a leaden failure if it were as depressing as I'm making it sound. Actually it's exhilarating, funny, brilliantly acted--and allows William S. Burroughs his 15 minutes of screen fame (the target practice came a little late for old Bill's wife). Add it all up and you have a film that allows cineastes to uncover subtleties while never veering into pomposity or arthouse cliches. A terrific film from Michael Almereyda.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best Film About Kansas Since The Wizard of Oz, December 9, 2003

By 

andy7 (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twister (DVD)

Crispin Glover fans will be in hog heaven when they see this neglected classic. He chews up the scenery, spits it out, and chews it up all over again. He wears leather jackboots, cracks a whip, and plays echoplex guitar-drenched love songs that don't seem to go anywhere. He also sings a great song called "Daddy Was So Mean". His delivery is so delicate that every line spoken trembles with sensitivity.
Watch out for the million-dollar cameo from Bull Lee, author of "Junky".