‘TWISTERS’ RATED PG-13

The premise of a disaster movie with an adrenaline-pumping thrill ride of storm chasers bravely venturing into the eye of a tornado turned 1996’s “Twister” into a spectacle of special effects.

“Twisters” basically follows the same path across the Oklahoma plains. In the original, Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt are two storm chasers on the brink of divorce. Now we get Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Kate Carter, a former chaser, and Glen Powell’s reckless adventure-seeking cowboy Tyler Owens.

Her storm-chasing days behind her after a devastating encounter with a tornado during her college years resulted in the death of friends, Kate now she studies storm patterns on computer screens in the safe confines of a weather service in New York City.

Kate is lured back to Oklahoma by her surviving friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) to test a groundbreaking new portable radar system that can better study how tornadoes form and allow for the release of polymers into the funnel’s eye to diminish its power.

Kate must also overcome her reluctance to return home where her mother Cathy (Maura Tierney) still lives on the family’s rural homestead, a place that holds painful memories of lost loved ones.

While Javi’s enterprise is funded in part by a dubious real estate developer with his eye of snatching up distressed properties, he’s not alone in the business of chasing storms for fame or profit.

Tyler Owens, a social media star who calls himself a “tornado wrangler,” has a huge following if for no better reason that he’s a charming hustler and reckless thrill-seeker who once got his kicks as a rodeo cowboy.

As the story moves along, it seems hardly a day goes by before another tornado touches down to disrupt a street festival, a rodeo, an oil refinery, and an entire town, with explosive results and widespread destruction.

The storm chasers are evidently fearless in the face of extreme danger. Tyler’s ride-along nervous British journalist Ben (Harry Hadden-Paton) would appear to be the surrogate who represents the audience’s vicarious fear of the monster in the sky.

Above all, “Twisters” is truly a wondrous exploration of a wild subculture of exhilarating storm-chasing, populated by a mix of professional meteorologists, hardcore weather enthusiasts and thrill-seeking adventurers.

For most of us, living outside of America’s “tornado alley” means that a film like “Twisters,” as awesome it is with its rousing depiction of a tornado’s destructive power, is as close as we want to get to the terrifying action.



‘MY SPY: THE ETERNAL CITY’ RATED PG-13

Only four years ago, “My Spy” featured the burly Dave Bautista, former professional wrestler, in the role of hardened CIA operative JJ tangling with a precocious ten-year-old girl during his undercover role of surveilling her family.

Now along comes the sequel, “My Spy: The Eternal City,” streaming on Prime Video, and JJ remains at the mercy of the now-young teen Sophie (Chloe Coleman) during a trip of her high school peers to Italy.

But first, the film opens with a scene that emulates the prologue to either a “Mission Impossible” or “James Bond” film. Bodyguard to teen idol Ryan (Bill Barratt) on a private, JJ is attacked by a flight attendant before a bomb blows out a window and everyone falls from the sky.

Sophie comes to the rescue in a jetpack with parachute, or this just a dream? Whatever the case, now married to Sophie’s mom, JJ is a desk jockey at the CIA and filling in as the spouse who bakes scones, forsaking field duty, much to the chagrin of his agency boss David Kim (Ken Jeong).

In his stepdad role, JJ presses Sophie to keep up her physical training so that she can become an agent, which may have been her dream at one time, but she also claims wanting once to be Dora the Explorer.

As part of his domestication and hoping to bond with s disgruntled stepdaughter, JJ volunteers for chaperone duty for Sophie’s high school choir’s trip that includes performing for the Pope at the Vatican during a G7 summit.

Of course, there’s more to the trip than wrangling juveniles who want nothing more than to break loose from the nightly curfew. For one thing, Sophie is now more interested in boys, while oblivious to her friend Collin (Taeho K) being smitten.

Some bad guys, most notably the requisite villain Crane (Flula Borg), have a nefarious plan to blow up the Vatican with nuclear weapons unless the G7 nations pony up millions in ransom, which seems reminiscent of the nuclear extortion plot in the James Bond film “Thunderball.”

While serviceable in some regards as a weird amalgam of teen comedy, spy film and action thriller, the storyline is so scattershot that it doesn’t measure up to the same charm of the original.

One might get the idea that “My Spy: The Eternal City” might be trying a little too hard, amidst the car chases, fight scenes and more adult dialogue, to be more mature than what would be expected for the younger targeted audience of “My Spy.”

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.