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Tornado! (1996) (TV) More at IMDb Pro »

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Twisters smaller, lower quality, brother., 28 September 2004

Author: The_Void from Beverley Hills, England

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.

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11 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
SShhcccwwweeeeeoooowww, 11 June 2000

Author: Tony Lloyd (oswaldmosley) from North Herts, UK

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!

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
better than Twister..., 4 August 2002

Author: surface6669 (surface6669@yahoo.com)

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.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
SUPPOSED to be a B-Movie. AND..., 17 March 2007

Author: jmuntmootcourt from United States

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.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Scientists attempt to convince Washington auditor to continue funding for their tornado research, 25 November 2006

Author: dashadow from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Like Twister but with no special effects – ie poor and pointless, 17 August 2005
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

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.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Better than 'Twister', 5 November 2004

Author: Philip Van der Veken from Tessenderlo, Belgium

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.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Tornado vs. Twister, 25 December 2004

Author: reneekittycat from Minnesota

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Good for TV, 12 July 2004

Author: Silverscope

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

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A nice TV movie, 28 April 2003

Author: Streetwolf

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.

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