Official Synopsis:
A mile-wide, 300 miles-per-hour force of total devastation is coming at you! In this adventure swirling with cliffhanging excitement and awesome special effects, Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton play scientists pursuing the most destructive weatherfront to sweep through mid-America’s Tornado Alley in 50 years. By launching electronic sensors into the funnel, the storm chasers hope to obtain data to create an improved warning system. But to do so, they must intercept the twisters’ deadly path. The chase is on!

  
Our Take:
It took me a while to figure out the logic behind Warner’s new Twister: 2-Disc Special Edition. Because while the original DVD, released when DVD technology was still new, is pretty bare bones, there was a special edition put out a few years back that included much of the material included here. So what sparked enough interest to go back and double dip yet again for a movie that’s already been represented on disc twice?

High def is the answer.

The way I figure it, Warner had to remaster the film in high def for Blu-Ray (and at the time, I’m sure they were planning on releasing it in HD-DVD, too). It is, after all, both a great-selling catalog title and a special effects masterpiece. Even after 12 years, the tornado visuals are still extremely impressive. So I imagine the thinking was, “Well, hell, if we’re going to spend all the time and money to remaster it in high-def, why not triple-dip and throw a few extras on there, slap on some new cover art, and make yet another new special edition DVD out of it?” And that’s pretty much the only reason I can see why this DVD exists. It looks and sounds nominally better than before, but for those of you who buy their DVDs based on the extra features, there’s not a whole lot of new stuff here, save for one new retrospective featurette and a nature special. 

Here’s the breakdown of bonus features:

Disc 1: Digitally Remastered Movie

* Commentary - With Director Jan De Bont and Visual Effects Supervisor Stefen Fangmeier, this track is carried over from the previous release.
* Theatrical Trailers.

Disc 2: Special Features

* Chasing the Storm: Twister Revisited (29 minutes) – De Bont and Fangmeier are joined by Bill Paxton in reminiscing about the film.
* Nature Tech: Tornadoes (45 minutes) – This is a History Channel special on tornado  technology, but it really has little to do with the movie.
* Anatomy of a Twister (8 minutes) – A carried-over making-of.
* HBO First Look: The Making of Twister (14 minutes) – A largely promotional featurette.
* Van Halen Humans Being Music Video – Also a carryover.

I remember how much I loved watching Twister in theaters, and while I still love this film, I have a really hard time giving this release my “RECOMMENDED!” stamp simply because it’s such a pointless double dip. Yes, the film looks and sounds great, but it looked and sounded pretty great before, too. If you have a gigantic home theater set-up and want to be able to show it off, this disc will do the trick, but if you just love Twister and already have the Special Edition from a few years ago, it’s not really worth the upgrade.

Overall Picture:
Movie: B+
DVD: B

- Mike Spring

Editor