The Big Picture · Review · Top Five
July 19, 2024/ 72 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda review 'Twisters,' the movie of the summer as far as they're concerned, then each rank their top five natural disaster movies. The original 'Twister' is disqualified for kicking off the whole genre.
12 films across 3 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
‘Twisters’the movie of the summer
Lee Isaac Chung's back-to-basics sequel, which both hosts call the movie of the summer. Daisy Edgar-Jones as a New York meteorologist pulled back to Oklahoma, Glen Powell as a cowboy-hatted YouTube 'tornado wrangler.' Diaper-polymer science, a rodeo evacuation, and a climax where a tornado tears the screen out of a movie theater.
The Jan de Bont original, back in rotation on Max and the Rewatchables. Sean thought it was a letdown in 1996 and rates the sequel higher; the Dorothy sensor pod carries over. Disqualified from the top five for starting the whole cycle.
Sean's Top Five Natural Disaster Moviesrevealed No. 5 up to No. 1
No. 1. Hitchcock's birds-turn-on-humanity nightmare; the lack of any explanation is what makes it play like an uncontrollable weather event.
No. 2. Cuarón's global-infertility ensemble, which Sean argues is a '70s-style disaster movie wearing prestige clothes.
No. 3. Mimi Leder's more emotional asteroid movie, picked over Armageddon after a late-night hotel-cable rewatch left him in tears.
No. 4. Joseph Kosinski's hotshot-firefighter drama with Josh Brolin and Miles Teller, based on a true story. Sean rules that walking into the disaster on purpose doesn't disqualify it.
No. 5. His nod to the Irwin Allen '70s cycle; an undersea earthquake and tsunami capsize the liner, so it qualifies.
Amanda's Top Five Natural Disaster Moviesrevealed No. 5 up to No. 1
No. 1. Lars von Trier's end of the world by planet, not meteor, where no one even tries to stop it. Kirsten Dunst.
No. 2. Bay's oil-riggers-turned-astronauts; Amanda cried harder at 14 than at any movie before or since.
No. 3. Östlund's avalanche-at-a-ski-resort marriage autopsy, which she notes is meaner than the American remake.
No. 4. Petersen's Gloucester fishing-boat disaster; rewatched the morning of taping, in honor of Chris Ryan and George Clooney's John Deere hat.
No. 5. The Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton volcano B-movie. Not good, she admits, but the best volcano she could come up with.
Also mentioned raised along the way
The Twisters cast, elsewhere MinariNopeAmerican HoneyLove Lies BleedingRachel Getting MarriedWhere the Crawdads SingGood Luck to You, Leo GrandeTop Gun: MaverickHit ManAnyone But You
Summer 2024 traffic TrapDeadpool & WolverineAlien: RomulusHorizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2Fly Me to the MoonSing Sing
The '70s disaster canon AirportEarthquakeThe SwarmThe Towering Inferno
Other asteroids, storms, and beasts Greenland2012The Day After TomorrowKnowingThe CoreDeepwater HorizonSharknadoCocaine BearGrizzly ManThe Volcano: Rescue from WhakaariJaws
In passing WaterworldThe PeacemakerAs Good as It GetsSpeedJurassic ParkWar of the WorldsMinority ReportFrankensteinDraculaThe BodyguardL.A. StoryNo Way OutThirteen DaysCocktailSpeciesVolcanoDark PhoenixTitanicValentine's DayHe's Just Not That Into YouDownhillApollo 13The Wizard of OzMegalopolisGladiator
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV House of the DragonMad About YouCheersSeinfeldBad Sisters9-1-1
Ringer shows Talk the ThronesHouse of RThe Midnight BoysTrial by ContentThe WatchThe Rewatchables
Music TV on the Radio