Note to self: Don’t drive in Oklahoma during tornado season.
Better yet, don’t be in Oklahoma.
That’s one of the lessons learned from “Twisters” (PG-13, 122 minutes, in theaters), which is not about Chubby Checker enthusiasts but the sequel to the 1996 disaster flick “Twister.”
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell star in “Twisters.” (Universal Pictures)
Going in, you pretty much know what you’re in for: lots of tornadoes, adrenaline-junkie storm chasers (Yee-ha!), lots of devastation, many violent deaths, a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on. Oh, and some romance thrown in.
And that’s what you get. But as summer popcorn movies go, “Twisters” is a good one, thanks to exciting action sequences and the appealing leads, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell.
Edgar-Jones plays Kate Carter, who, as the film opens, is a college student with a savant-like ability to predict the movement and characteristics of tornadoes. While Kate and fellow students chase a tornado for a research project, things go very wrong and not everyone makes it out alive.
Cut to five years later, and a still-shaken Kate works safely in New York City forecasting weather for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She’s approached by fellow survivor Javi (Anthony Ramos) to return to Oklahoma to join his team to test a new system that scans tornadoes. Kate, understandably, is in no hurry to return to the field, but … well, you can guess what happens.
When Kate joins Javi’s serious professional team (you can tell they’re serious because they wear the same corporate-casual outfits), she meets a scruffy rival team of YouTube hot shots led by former rodeo cowboy Tyler Owens (Powell), a self-described “tornado wrangler.” Serious Kate and cocky Tyler clash at first, but … well, you can guess what happens.
As played by Powell, Tyler, with his megawatt smile, at first appears a clone of one of Tom Cruise’s more obnoxious, self-satisfied heroes. But Kate soon brings out his humanity, and he becomes more genuine and likable. Edgar-Jones is equally engaging, despite playing a more reserved character.
While Kate and Tyler draw closer, director Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) delivers several breathtaking storm scenes, including one in which they hang on for their lives in a drained motel swimming pool.
There’s enough good here to compensate for the film’s predictability and occasional gaps in logic: If tornadoes are such a common occurrence in Oklahoma, for instance, why is it that the residents always seem so stumped as to what to do when one hits?
Then again, “Twisters” isn’t the kind of movie to worry about such subtleties. It would be a great choice to see at a drive-in – though you’d better be careful if it’s in Oklahoma. *** (out of four)
Cage is killer
Nicolas Cage as a satanic serial killer?
Yes!
Who better than that maniacal thespian to play the title psycho in writer-director Oz Perkins’ “Longlegs” (R, 101 minutes, in theaters). (Speaking of psycho, or “Psycho,” Perkins is the son of Norman Bates himself, the late Anthony Perkins.)
The Cagester exceeds expectations. As soon as his long-haired, pasty-faced Longlegs shows up on screen – looking like Beetlejuice, but with lipstick and a frail, super-creepy voice – he sends a chill through you as he embodies evil and madness. (I try not to talk during movies, but when he made this first brief appearance, I involuntarily let out a “Damn!”)
Nicolas Cage goes bonkers in “Longlegs.” (Neon)
Maika Monroe, whose horror-thriller credentials include “It Follows” and “Watcher,” stars as FBI Agent Lee Harker. The super-serious Lee is socially awkward but has psychic gifts, which is why she’s called home to Oregon to investigate a decades-long string of mysterious murder-suicides in which fathers have slaughtered their families around the time of a daughter’s ninth birthday. At each crime scene, a note with a satanic code is left, signed by someone named Longlegs.
Soon Longlegs is paying Lee a call … and the plot, as they say, thickens.
Though Cage’s screen time is limited, he makes the most of it, giving his most deranged performance to date – which is saying something. It’s one of the scariest movie portrayals of all time. And Alicia Witt is almost as scary as a character who plays an important part in the plot.
Essentially, the movie considers how, if evil truly exists as an entity, it might manifest itself. The results are unsettling, and make the ending of the original “The Exorcist” (still, for my money, the scariest movie of all time), uplifting by comparison.
Though the emphasis is on chilling horror, filmmaker Perkins also slips in odd bits of humor, whether it’s a comically uncomfortable conversation Lee has with a young girl or the fact that Longlegs has posters of Lou Reed and T-Rex’s Marc Bolan in his lair.
Talk about taking a walk on the wild side. ***
A Rash worth having
“Fly Me to the Moon” (PG-13, 132 minutes, in theaters) is old-fashioned in more ways than one.
Set in 1969 around the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing, it blends two styles of romantic comedy from the past.
The repartee between stars Scarlett Johannson and Channing Tatum seems right out of a 1930s screwball comedy; it could just as well be Jean Arthur, Rosalind Russell or Barbara Stanwyck trading lines with Cary Grant, James Stewart or Gary Cooper.
Scarlett Johannson and Channing Tatum appear in a scene from “Fly Me to the Moon.” (Sony Pictures)
Even more so, it resembles the kind of light fare from the ’50s and ’60s in which Doris Day would play a perky, plucky heroine opposite a bewildered straight man like Rock Hudson or James Garner.
In other words, it’s fluff – amusing, but, in this case at least, mostly forgettable.
Johannson plays Kelly Jones, a quick-thinking, upbeat marketing expert brought in to boost the image of NASA as it prepares for the first moon landing. For no-nonsense launch director Cole Davis (Tatum), Kelly’s publicity work is a frivolous, intrusive, morally dubious distraction from the ambitious, honorable, life-threatening mission at hand. The two clash while romantic sparks fly.
Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), a shadowy government agent working under Nixon, keeps pushing for the two to work together while also complicating matters by insisting that Kelly secretly film a fake landing to ensure positive public consumption.
Jim Rash steals the film as Lance Vespertine, the director Kelly hires to film the fake landing on a hidden set with actors playing Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. (Other actors, incidentally, play the “real” Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins in the film.) Rash’s fussy, sharp-tongued Lance is hilarious, slipping in one uproarious aside (“My Armstrong is a whiny little bitch”) after another. (Fun fact: Rash won the best-adapted-screenplay Oscar for “The Descendants” in 2012)
Moviegoers might go to “Fly Me to the Moon” for the considerable star power of Johannson and Channing, but if they remember it, it will be for Rash. ***
** Click here for Tim Miller’s previous movie columns for Cape Cod Wave **
Please like Cape Cod Wave on Facebook.
Cape Cod Wave Magazine covers the character & culture of Cape Cod. Please see our Longform stories.
Tim Miller, Movie Critic
Tim Miller is co-president of the Boston Society of Film Critics and a Tomatometer-approved critic. He teaches film and journalism at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or follow him onTwitter @TimMillerCritic. Or you can ignore him completely.
