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Flash Movie Review: Twisters
FOR ALL THE YEARS I WAS TEACHING fitness and yoga, I had only one accident take place in my classes. It was a cycle class and a new couple who were husband and wife came to participate. I had gone up to introduce myself and asked if they had ever been to a cycle class before. They said yes and I saw they knew how to set up their bikes properly. I wished them success and a good ride before going back to the front of the class. It was fifteen minutes into our ride when the wife got off her bike and went over to her husband’s to adjust the handlebars higher. Things were going along until I moved the class into a standing climb. He moved into position, got off his seat, and suddenly the handlebars came off and he tumbled with them over the front of his bike. I jumped off and ran over to him, asking if he was okay. He kept reassuring me as I did a visual scan over his body, noticing a couple of cuts and all the limbs moving like they were supposed to do. I offered to walk them to the front desk to fill out an incident report, but he declined, telling me he was a doctor, and he was fine. During our short conversation he did say he wanted the handlebars higher, so he asked his wife to adjust them for him. I looked at her and she said she must have gone too high with them; I added that she probably did not lock them into place. With that they left the studio, and I went back to instructing the class. IF THIS HAD HAPPENED EARLY IN MY career, I might have quit. It took me a few years to finally feel comfortable teaching a room filled with members; this is what takes place when you have little self-confidence. Luckily, I had established myself as a competent instructor who diligently looked out for the members in his classes. I have seen it happen where someone changes the course of their career due to a single event. There was a research scientist in one of my classes who chose that field because of their sister’s disease; they wanted to help find a cure. Another example would be a co-worker from a previous job who used to be a firefighter until he got burned during a call, trying to put out a fire in an apartment building. It just goes to show you, the choices we make sometimes get influenced by certain events in our lives. This is why I could understand the main character’s hesitancy in this action, adventure thriller. HAVING LEFT HER DREAMS AND HOPES behind, and now working behind a computer screen, a former storm chaser returns to Oklahoma after an old friend convinces her that his innovative technology will make things safer. With Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing, Cold Feet-TV) as Kate, Glen Powell (Hit Man, Anyone But You) as Tyler, Anthony Ramos (In the Heights, Dumb Money) as Javi, Brandon Perea (Nope, The OA-TV) as Boone, and Maura Tierney (The Iron Claw, Beautiful Boy) as Cathy; this movie was filled with scattered showers. It was so predictable that I pretty knew everything that was going to take place later in the story. Sure, there were a couple of twists, but I felt the writers did an injustice to the characters, making them one-dimensional, borderline cartoonish. Despite this flaw, I thought Glenn still had great screen presence that elevated Daisy as well. The special effects were also a mixture of good and poor. Some scenes were exciting, while others were just okay. I think if the writers had added layers to the characters and opened them up to a deeper level, this film would have had more substance. Instead, this is one of those movies that will just die down to a gentle breeze.
2 stars
Flash Movie Review: Geostorm
MOST CHILDREN ONLY WANT it to rain in the middle of the night, while they are sleeping. For some hopefully, thunder and lightning will not wake them up; though they would not mind if there were puddles to jump in during the morning hours. I remember hoping every time it was snowing outside the schools would close for the day, so I could play in the snow with my friends all day. Back then the weather was only thought about when it would alter the planned day of events. A rainy day meant I could not go to the beach or the local amusement park. Depending on how much snow fell would determine if we would go out to the suburbs to visit relatives. Weather back then was simply a part of life; dramatic events were at a minimum. Thunderstorms I recall lasted a couple of hours with very little damage to property. THOUGH IT WAS STARTED in the late 1940s, I think it was not until the 1960s or 70s when cloud seeding was mentioned in the mainstream. The idea of humans changing weather patterns fascinated me. Then again I always enjoyed the character Storm, who could manipulate the weather, in the X-Men series. Now I do not know about you but I have noticed the weather has taken on a more sinister veneer these days. Storms and weather events have become more violent, from intense tornados to major flooding. To my way of thinking, something had to happen that affected the weather patterns. If I remember correctly didn’t the host country China seed clouds before the Olympics started, so it would rain before the opening ceremony? One has to wonder if there were any ramifications from doing such a thing. Something has changed in my opinion that is causing the weather to turn on us. Long stretches of drought, major flooding, multiple tornadoes and hurricanes; whether one believes or not the theories that are being used to explain the weather, wouldn’t it make sense to at least explore the possibilities to see what is taking place around us? This action, science fiction thriller might be a prelude to what could happen to us. AFTER A PERIOD OF peaceful coexistence with the weather, a network of satellites that were controlling the climate begins to malfunction. The cause needed to be found before the earth would become the victim to a massive, destructive world storm. Starring Gerald Butler (A Family Man, Playing for Keeps) as Jake Lawson, Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe, The Best Offer) as Max Lawson, Abbie Cornish (Bright Star, Limitless) as Sarah Wilson, Alexandra Marie Lora (Rush, Control) as Ute Fassbinder and Daniel Wu (New Police Story, One Nite in Mongkok) as Cheng Long; the script quickly sunk this film. There was nothing new in this story that has not played in numerous disaster movies from before. Even the special effects were only okay; something about them did not make them pop out like I have seen done in other pictures. I am afraid outside of a couple of scenes I was bored a good portion of the time. Scenes that lent themselves to intense drama were lacking it and one pretty much could figure out what was going on in the story. Though I saw this film on a sunny day, it put a cloudy damper over me.
1 ¾ stars
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