Twister

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It's hard to dislike a picture with flying cows and oil trucks.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's a keeper, a tumultuous love story set against the backdrop of 24 hours of really, really inclement weather in the Oklahoma heartland.

USA Today Mike Clark

A summer crowd-pleaser worthy of its wind.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid to the rush of raw excitement "Twister" creates is that it makes it possible to ignore the painful awkwardness of the film's expository sequences and thudding dialogue of the "OK, boss lady, hold your horses" variety.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Twister is full of marvelous special effects. The story exists only to provide some respite between those marvels, like dialogue in an opera full of terrific arias. [10 June 1996, p.24]

Empire Ian Nathan

This film encompasses everything that is both grating and great about the blockbuster. It gives scant regard to character depth or dialogue while still being a must-see hoopla of computer trickery that weakens the knees and raises the neck-hairs.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Hurtling pace, by-the-numbers character development and exotic science. Tornado-chasing suddenly takes on a sex appeal not usually associated with horrendous storms.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Doesn't have any pretensions. It is what it sets out to be: an effective piece of big money, early summer entertainment designed to blow viewers away.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

And for a movie that stars acts of God, this work of mortals provides surprisingly little liftoff. The stuff that whips through the angry skies in Twister is the most exciting part of the spectacle. Essentially, we're turned on by debris.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Another theme park ride of a movie without an ounce of emotional credibility to it, Twister succeeds on its own terms by taking the audience somewhere it has never been before: into a tornado's funnel.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The engineering of the special effects is fairly impressive, and the sight of so many objects and creatures being buffeted about carries a certain apocalyptic splendor.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

You want loud, dumb, skillful, escapist entertainment? Twister works. You want to think? Think twice about seeing it.

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

Extreme-weather buffs, thrill-ride junkies and anyone else in search of mindless entertainment need look no further.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Audiences may howl at the hackneyed plot and dialogue, but you won't hear them over the Dolby sound effects assaulting your eardrums at a gazillion decibels.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The scenes of destruction-apart from being great to watch-provide much-needed relief from these people's unidimensional banalities.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Twister not only blows, it sucks, too.

San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser

Big swirls of computer-generated dirt, a bickering couple and the dead certainty that the fiancee will leave and the bickerers will get back together. An exciting night out, or what?