Tornado! (1996) Online

Get real. Any movie starring Bruce Campbell is expected to be a B-movie. The COOL thing about that here is that instead of its counterpart, Twister, they decided on something that looked real, rather than something that looked exciting. I haven't seen Twister since I saw it in the theater. It blew, and I didn't give a crap about any of the characters or the story. As far as I'm concerned, THEY ripped THIS off, and made it a "sensation" of CGI crap. The characters are more believable, as are the effects and the story. I may have rated this a 6, but Twister is about a 2...and only because of the flying cow and Bill Paxton is it not a 1.

At one point in the movie, Bruce Campbell is told that he is not god. Realism aside, however; for a TV movie, this isn't too bad. It loses out to it's bigger budget 1996 big brother; Twister on just about every front, but there is still reason enough for this movie to warrant your time. Bruce Campbell is the main reason; he's a B-movie legend. His performance here doesn't echo the fantastic work he did on The Evil Dead films, in fact; none of his other films have anything on those great performances and I continually get the impression that Bruce's heart just isn't in a lot of the stuff he makes. However, it's always a pleasure to see this great man in a movie and although, as I said, his performance isn't great; it's good enough, and he alone is more than enough reason to see the film. The rest of the cast isn't noteworthy...the majority of the acting is typical TV fare; not rock bottom, but not exactly good either. Campbell is more than enough to keep it afloat, however.

The effects in Tornado! aren't brilliant. Not even good, in fact. They're very low quality and don't even come close to the lovely effects in Twister. The effects here are mostly just tease stuff; there's wind and people shouting, but rarely do we see a tornado, and even when we do it's usually a cut from a real tornado, as opposed to an actual effect. This is good in a way, but bad in another; as although it's more realistic, it loses credibility as it means that we don't get to see the tornado ravaging houses and cars etc. The story of Tornado! is really rather dull, as it tries to draw parallels with the current global warming situation. This is a waste of time, and the movie would have been better served not bothering; as nobody is going to listen to a message in a low quality TV movie. Also, just like in Twister, Tornado! has some extremely terrible human drama to go with the tornados. Unfortunately, unlike in Twister; the drama here is central to the story, as opposed to secondary like it was in Twister. And this is unfortunate because the drama is bad.

Overall, I'd have to say that Twister has far more going for it than this movie does. But then again, Twister doesn't have Bruce Campbell; so I'd recommend this movie because Bruce Campbell is in it, and he's actually starring this time; unlike in most of his non-Evil Dead films in which he only has a small cameo appearance.

Sam Callen (Shannon Sturges from the TV series Savannah) gets sent to Texas to basically shut down Dr. Branson's tornado tracking machine project and gives him a few days to come up with some results for him to be able to continue his project while she gets romanced by Jake (Bruce Campbell), a tornado chasing cowboy and farmer, who lives with his grandfather and occasionally comes to blows with his highschool rival Ritchie Cochran, an ambitious TV weather man, who shows interest in Sam as well. Sam decides to stay on a little longer so she can experience a tornado unaware it's a monster tornado.

Twister was better since that was a box office movie. Bruce Campbell was quite cool in this movie, even though this movie had no real effects it is still worth a watch. I rate this 6/10.

We all know what the problem is with disaster movies: they never look like the real thing. If you've seen a documentary about storm chasers, every movie you see about tornadoes just doesn't feel real. The same here, although I have to admit that I liked it more than Twister. The reason why I think this one is better is because it tries to be faithful to the reality, while in Twister all that mattered were the spectacular special effects.

"Tornado!" tells the story of Dr. Branson who has developed a device that can do a lot of measurements when it is placed in the middle of a tornado. Of course his team receives money from the government for that, but the government wants to see results. Sam Callen is sent to Texas to shut down Dr. Branson's project, but gives him a few days to come up with some results for him to be able to continue his project.

Of course the team is made up by a naive scientist, a nerd and some cowboys, while Sam Callen is a yuppie that has no interest in tornadoes, but only thinks about her job and the results she has to book. I guess I don't have to make a drawing of what is going to happen next: she's always in a fight with one of the storm chasers, but in the end they fall in love... I guess that's the way Hollywood thinks it always goes.

As I already said the storms aren't the real deal and the story is predictable, but at least it isn't as unbelievable as Twister. And we have to take into account that the makers of Twister had a much bigger budget than the people who did this movie. That's why I give this movie a score of 5,5/10.

I just love the way cheap film producers see a new film coming and quickly hash together a 'suspiciously similar' flick. This came out on TV around the same time as Twister was arriving at cinemas. Some appallingly cheap effects, bargain basement acting and a 'pilfered' plot. Still, when you can see the cut out lines around the tornados you just know you're gonna love this film. Bruce Cambell takes a break from shooting dead people in the face and instead avoids spiralling winds by the skin of his teeth time after time after time after time after time after time after time. Go, on - get drunk and have a laff!

I was surprised by this movie. Don't get me wrong...this movie is no academy award winner, but it's better (more accurate) than Twister, which had to have the bigger budget by far. There actually was a device that was used by tornado researchers a while ago, called Toto I think, like the device that's in the movie. I don't think that it ever actually came in contact with a tornado though. I was also surprised at how the National Weather Service was portrayed in the movie. They (in particular SPC, which is actually the Storm Prediction Center) seem very inept and ineffective, which is an unfair portrait. The acronym "SPC" is never actually defined in the movie either, I don't think, which is strange considering that I think most people wouldn't know what SPC was. The ending of the movie is a little hokey, but this movie was a lot better than I thought it was going to be.

I've seen both these movies and Tornado is by far the better one. I love Bruce Campbell in this. The special effects are for TV quite good and in my opinion the acting is better than Twister. Sorry for fans of Helen Hunt but she is best suited for TV not the big screen. Campbell was a perfect choice for this movie and he steals the picture. I only had one problem with it and that was the idea that a tornado has an eye like a hurricane does. I have lived in a tornado prone area all my life and I have never heard of a tornado having a calm center. The science of the movie could have used a bit more research. Still, I found the movie exciting and very interesting. I have always been curious about people who chase tornadoes, I wonder what could possess them to do it. I know that it is a very dangerous job and I could never do it.

Renee

i'll start with the positives.i really like the characters that Bruce Campbell and Ernie Hudson played.they were both very likable.Bruce Campbell did a very good job in his role as a storm chaser.not once did i think of him in his Evil Dead persona.Ernie Hudson was also credible in his role as a scientist who had been trying for years to perfect an early warning system he had developed.other than that,there is not a lot to recommend this movie.we see very few tornadoes in the movie.it is more of a drama than anything else.it was boring at times,to say the least.of far as these types of movies go,this one is very low key and sedate at times.there is also nothing original in it.you basically have the same bunch of characters,just with different names.it passes the time,but that's about it.4/10

A good TV movie. It's slow pace, BORING characters, shoddy plot and sub par effects all come standard with the TV-movie genre and this is no exception. The only character I found interesting was bruce campbell's father, he kept the film alive for me. The pace is terribly slow and at times annoying, the scenes with supposed character development are shocking (who wants to hear about boring peoples lives?). The tornado sequences are bland, the first two are false alarms and so nothing is seen then the last two are shown, only barely but and with C grade effects.

Nothing special here, as I said before, it's good for TV but not for anything else.

4/10

Tornado! came out a few days before the more famous Twister, but has almost the same concept behind it. Scientists are trying to put an instrument in the path of a tornado. There are storm chases, a rival meteorologist, a love interest, and surviving a tornado by tying themselves down to an object on the ground. The plots are not absolutely identical, the love interest is an accountant, nicknamed The Terminator, who was sent from Washington to kill the project, the rival meteorologist eventually helps the hero of the piece, and the effects are minimal; however, as I watched I kept wondering if writers have all run out of new ideas or if cross-pollination existed between the two movie productions. Global warming is dragged in as an excuse to explain the desire to cut the project's funding. I think the plot would have been better if it would have stuck to just a simple budget cutting and not tried to piggy-back environmentalism onto it. There are a lot of Senators and Congressmen who come from tornado prone areas and a simple budget cut would be a much better argument. The oddest part of the movie has the characters tied down to the instrument pack when the tornado hits and then running to the storm cellar while they are in the eye of the tornado. The eye of the tornado is dead calm and lasts, at least, five minutes during which the grandfather tries to prevent the rock-steady data package from blowing away. Remember, the data package is the same object that kept three people from blowing away when the storm first hit. The acting is alright, though not terrific, and it is an adequate movie to watch.

"Tornado!" is actually quite similar to "Twister", so if you have seen that movie, then you know what you are in for here. But don't let that discourage you from watching the movie, because "Tornado!" actually is good entertainment.

Initially I picked up the movie because it had Bruce Campbell in it. And I must admit that I was sort of expecting his usual comedy-acting in the movie, so it was a rather nice surprise to see him acting seriously for a chance, and he really did a good job at it as well.

The story is about Jake Thorne (played by Bruce Campbell) and Dr. Joe Branson (played by Ernie Hudson) who are chasing after tornadoes in order to study them for future predictions. The government sends out an official to get results or have their project shut down, this is Samantha Callen (played by Shannon Sturges).

"Tornado!" doesn't boast the best of CGI effects or special effect, but whatever effects they did use actually worked out well enough, though at times I could have wanted a bit more furious effects to make it seem that the tornado was actually there and being rampant. But overall, the effects were adequate enough. Just don't expect to be dazzled by state-of-the-art CGI.

If you like disaster movies, then "Tornado!" is definitely worth giving a chance, because it is far better than so many other doomsday-like disaster movies available. And if you are a fan of Bruce Campbell, then you should most definitely check out this particular movie.

I'm a Bruce Campbell fan so I took a chance and watched this movie. I thought that with Bruce, and solid character actors like Ernie Hudson and L.Q. Jones, this would at least, entertain. It didn't. It's an obvious "Twister" knock-off, and doesn't come close. A high school computer class must have done the computer graphics. They probably wrote the script, too. About an hour into the movie, they hit me with the political pitch: "The anti-environment people are pulling the plug on any projects that acknowledge Global Warming!" It really had no place in the story, as we already knew that the heads of the research organization were looking to cancel the project. In looking back, that pitch had to be the only purpose for making this movie in the first place. It certainly wasn't to entertain.

Samantha Callen is sent down to twister country to assess the financial merits of a tornado research project and, if possible, shut it down to save money. She meets the project manager Dr Branson who is passionate, and his associate Jake Thorne who is very much the cowboy. Her role is to close the project down and Jake knows it but despite this the two find themselves attracted to one another. When Sam sees the effects of a tornado first hand she struggles with the decisions she is supposed to implement – but can Branson's technology really make a difference?

On 28th July 2005, a part of south Birmingham was hit by a small tornado, ripping up roofs, buildings, fences and hurting about 30 people. It was also on this day that I decided to watch this TVM, thinking that I might as well do it while it is topical if nothing else. Unsurprisingly trying to ride the coattails of Twister, this film fails to deliver in any way and manages to make the hollow event of Twister look like it is Citizen Kane. The plot is insipid and pointless, failing to make me care about the people or the scenario. The lack of action means that we were clearly expected to get into the plot, something that I couldn't do. The total lack of budget is a bit of a problem since even Twister struggled to be a good film with a massive special effects budget. Tornado has a few very poor effects and some moments of people running around in a wind machine – they are laughable rather than exciting and there was nothing here either. I did wonder what it was trying to do (other than cash in) because with both plot and effects poor at best there is no reason to bother.

The cast cannot do anything to stop the rot either, despite the names. Campbell is good in some films but here he is just a big block of wood that delivers his lines with all the charisma of bookcase and the urgency of a dead badger. His attempts to have chemistry with Sturges are admirable enough but he can't do it. He isn't helped by her just turning up and expecting it all to fall into place with no effort – she is poor throughout. Hudson is rubbish and LQ Jones only brings some cult appeal. As with the plot, delivery and effects – the actors are pointless and poor on the whole.

Overall this is a poor attempt to cash in on the interest in the film Twister in 1996. Of course since we now all know that that was poor as well, it is unlikely that Tornado will do much business as the years pass – only watched by those that lack the sense god gave them (me) or real Bruce Campbell fans. No effects, no plot of note, no characters and no performances = no point.

Tornado!...

...you know, I really hate it when movie names have exclamation points in the titles. Like, what's the point? To add emphasis, to make it pop more? Is the audience member reading the VHS cover supposed to shout it in order to pronounce it properly? No, it's not pronounced "tornado", it's "TORNADO!!!", at the top of your lungs. Though, I think the proper reason as to why an exclamation point is in the title is to symbolize the shock of a tornado finally appearing in this film. You're sitting through this plaintive film that slithers at a snails pace, and you're sitting on the couch with your shirt off playing Angry Birds because there's absolutely nothing remotely interesting occurring on screen, and FINALLY a tornado shows up. So, it's like "hey, a Tornado!" because it's such a shock that a tornado finally appears in a film called Tornado!. Exclamation point, period? How do I write that? "!." or just "!" since it's the end of the sentence? See, it's just stupid.

Tornado(!) is a 1996 TV movie meant to blatantly cash in and rip off Twister, which came out two weeks before this film premiered. It happens to actually star some notable people, like Bruce Campbell, Ernie Hudson, and LQ Jones, among others. There have been some internet testimonies of people claiming this film actually played in some theaters, but it's never officially been confirmed and I dread anyone who paid money to watch this on the big screen. For people who hated Twister, I dare you to watch Tornado!. Its biggest flaw is that it's dull. So, so dull. Every time you think a tornado is about to appear, it just cuts to black and opens up to the next day. You're sitting at the edge of your seat, finally relieved that something is about to happen...and then it just cuts to somewhere else. It's basically the proto-Godzilla (2014) about 20 years earlier. In all actuality, there's only about 10 seconds of on-screen tornado action occurring in this film, and most of it can be seen in the trailer. For the remaining 89 minutes and 50 seconds, it's nothing but bad dialog and people doing nothing. It gets excruciating and torturous within 30 minutes. Even when the tornado is right in front of our characters, the camera doesn't pan around to let the audience see it; we just hear sounds of destruction and our casts' shocked expressions. I understand that the film is low budget, but filmmakers need to understand that they can't tease an audience with something they don't have the money to afford showing. Not even legendary coolmeisters like Bruce Campbell and Ernie Hudson can sweettalk this film to make it more bearable. Instead, they too just sit around waiting for a tornado to appear. Not surprisingly, the most interesting sequence is the one moment where we actually see the tornado as it wrecks havoc on a small town.

I hear people all the time exclaiming how Twister is such an awful film, and it really makes me wish they'd see this. Watching Twister after this will make the latter seem like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Twister may be dumb, but at least it's fun and spends about 90% of its runtime with cool tornado-related action sequences, and at least the characters do more than just talk about boring stuff. Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt's writing may get annoying, but at least they actually do stuff. Wanna see Bruce Campbell get a haircut? Wanna see Ernie Hudson watch TV? Wanna see Bruce Campbell driving while nothing is happening? Wanna sit around for 90 minutes waiting for a Tornado to appear? Well, Tornado! may be the film for you. The sad thing is that Tornado! isn't even the worst tornado film. Atomic Twister, Nature Unleashed: Tornado, Storm Cell, Storm Chasers: Revenge Of The Twisters, and Devil Winds are all much worse than Tornado!, and that's extremely unsettling because this is a bad, bad movie.

The snail pace, uninteresting characters, unoriginal plot, and substandard effects makes up this rushed film designed to cash in on the hype of Twister. The pace is terribly slow and at some places is so irritating to where you want to either stop the movie or turn your TV off, and the character development in the film doesn't help enhance or advance the plot, rather it hinders it. The tornado sequences are shoddy since the tornadoes are poorly rendered and that not much destruction is shown during the sequences since they quickly end with a fade to black transition, there's more destruction in the aftermath which almost makes you forgive the rushed sequences.

The main thing that stops this film from being blown to bits is that Bruce Campbell stars in it.

"Samantha Callen" (Shannon Sturges) has been sent from Washington D.C. to the Texas Panhandle to essentially terminate funding for an experimental mechanical device developed by Dr. Joe Branson (Ernie Hudson). With the help of a small team led by "Jake Thorne" (Bruce Campbell), Dr. Branson hopes to place the device he's nicknamed "PATTI" in the direct path of a tornado. Anyway, as Samantha settles in at the Thorne Ranch to collect data for her report, she begins to see the human side of the equation along with the devastation a tornado can cause. Even so, her decision will not be easy. Now, although this film was made the same year (and at a fraction of the cost) as its more famous rival "Twister", I believe it still holds up rather well by comparison. Certainly the solid performances of Shannon Sturges and Bruce Campbell had much to do with that. Likewise, the fact that Shannon Sturges is rather easy on the eyes didn't hurt either. Be that as it may, while this might not necessarily be a blockbuster film, it's probably decent enough to rate an average score.

Quickly churned out to cash in on the Twister hype, this made for TV movie offers a sub-par version of just about everything in that 1996 blockbuster. Bruce Campbell may be in it, but Sam Rami ain't the director. Too bad. The story of this film, like that of Twister revolves around a team of scientists hoping to perfect a machine that can be left in the path of a tornado and record all sorts of information about them. Similar characters and plot tangents are used here as well. We meet people who somehow claim to have instincts that will tell them when and where these storms will hit. We have civilians put in harm's way, and somehow we have a bad guy and a love interest for the main character.

What we don't have however, is a budget. The special effects of this film look like something film school students from nearby UT Austin would have come up with for class credit. Many scenes are just simply filmed after someone turned on a wind machine and watched things blow around. Any tornadoes we actually see just look like smudges superimposed on a pre-recorded shot of the countryside. In some scenes, our main characters stand only a few feet away from the devastation as its unfolding, and look like they are more concerned about when the catering truck is going to show up. There are lots and lots of dead spots throughout as this is paced abysmally.

The acting isn't terrible in some spots. Campbell will at least remind you of more interesting things he has been in. Veteran character actor L.Q. Jones is a hoot as an old codger who believes he is somehow at one with nature. Ernie Hudson is always likable. The lead actress known as "Shannon Sturges" is too pretty for her role. Few other actors seem recognizable.

Look, Twister was also a poor film, but it had the power of its convictions, a better cast, and a lot more money behind it. Tornado! is a cheap attempt at a cash in. You can make a TV movie and still make a quality project. Still I think Dark Night of the Scarecrow is perhaps the best TV film I've ever seen. Tornado! looks like the cheap quickie it is. It even tries to justify itself by trying to suggest global warming has a direct relationship to more severe tornadoes. As if viewers needed another excuse for an eye roll.... 4 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

The song playing on the jukebox at Jimmy Jack's is called "I'm Worth It". It is sung by Missy Adams. It is on a CD called "Fast Track To Fame-Country Vol.1" From Sonic Records. There is a clean copy of the song at www.johnhillmusic.com/tvmusic.html and is listed as tornado.mp3. I can't find any more info on Missy Adams,so it may have been a one hit wonder. Hope this helps. An interesting movie for anyone into the whole tornado thing. I enjoyed it, and watch it every now and then.Trying to find out more about the song is what got me interested in this movie.Ernie Hudson is astar you don't see much any more.Also in Ghostbusters!

Good movie, considering it was made for TV. There are tons of similarities to this and Twister, but for all you out there who post that it's nothing original, keep in mind this was released 3 days before Twister was. There was definitely some collaboration between the people on the films IMO. There are way too many similarities for two different groups to come up with almost the exact same thing, to be released at almost the exact same time.

I enjoyed it, even though it's more on the drama side. Very few Tornadoes in the movie, but I liked it all the same. Then again, I like most of the B movies Bruce Campbell is in.

Definitely worth the few bucks I found it on Amazon.com for.

Tornado is a little more accurate about Tornados than Twister. I Liked them both. I Have rented this movie several times. The reason I say a little more accurate is because they used the National Weather Service office in Ammirlo TX and the forecasters from that office while filming.

Overall it is a good film, they could have used something else to collect data on the storm, there probe is a cheap ripoff of Dorthey from Twister. I Also liked the fact they used NOAA Weather Radio, now known as NOAA-ALL HAZARDS RADIO. And I Think they should have chased more tornado's the film could have more action, they should have put some more debris on the road it could have been just more hail or dirt.

I love this movie, but i think twister is a hundred times better, but this is good for a TV movie about tornadoes. I like the action in this movie, the coincidence that it takes place in Texas which is where I live, and many other things. From what I remember, only one good view of a tornado is shown through the entire movie. in this movie, like twister, they try to put a short instrument pack that looks like an old fashion grill. inside of a tornado which i think has the same name TOTO as the actual instrument pack that was used by storm chasers bit never worked and then was replaced by TURTLES which are flat instrument packs. Owverall this was still a good movie.

There are some horrendous movies out there. Movies that are so bad you can't watch them.

This isn't one of them. This is merely terrible. Even if you're a Bruce Campbell fan, this doesn't rise to the level of a truly unviewable film, except in the sense that some turds will float to the top of the septic tank. You should see this as a double feature with "Twister," if only to take a break from a well-done (if slightly over-done) action movie. See if you can spot the scenes in "Tornado!" that the writer stole from (or guessed were going to be in) the other movie.

Ernie Hudson doesn't emote nearly as well as he did in his somewhat... restrained performances in the "Ghostbusters" franchise.

You'd think that the writer who gave us "The Aviator" and the screenplays for "The Last Samurai," "Star Trek: Nemesis," (2002) "Gladiator," and "Any Given Sunday" could have done better. But then again, maybe the reason that he supplied the screenplay, but not the story, for almost all of his big-ticket movies. After all, John Logan's original works also include classics like "Bats," and, well, this drek.

Twister vs Tornado... what is the differences

Money??? surely not the story... because it's really similar

Just one reason to see this movies.... Bruce Campbell

When i first saw it in the shop, i thought that the cover looked like twister and thought it would be like twister, when i watched it, i was sure wrong. You know it is bad because it starts off so corny, and the fact that you only get to see two horrible Tornado's in fact it is not about tornado's, why only two? Who ever did the editing on this film wants sacking because it is horrible. Is it related to twister? because it is nearly the same story, i did love twister, it is just a shame because the script for tornado has something, but it just has not got enough powerful footage of how Tornadoes are really like, it really is a shame. I am not a fan of special affects but in cases like sci-fi films or films that need special affects because of it being impossible to create a tornado for a film, twister is much better. In all i hate this film, the way the clouds were forming just before a tornado, absolutely cheesy, who ever wants to buy this movie, Don't!, it is just without a doubt the most bad movie i have ever seen, it is a shame because the script is amazing, just a shame not enough money was involved in the making

Avoid this movie like a storm! This is one of the worst movies I've seen in a while. The plot, characters, and dialogs are flat, shallow, and predictable. The movie makes embarrassing attempts at evoking suspense and drama. There is a hint at a love story that never develops. The "climatic" ending lost what wind it had developed, weak as it was. The ridiculous effects makes the movie feel more like a dream or fantasy in itself rather than providing insight for the real world. Thus, the story carries no insight or force for political or spiritual issues. If anything it seems suggests that superstition is important or true to reality. Don't be surprised to see this one played in the Mystery Science Theater near you.