Since there are few things I like better than "Top" lists I thought I would share my Top 5 movies starring The Weather.
This is--I promise--the only movie on this list that's actually about the weather. It's also the reason I briefly toyed with the idea of becoming meteorologist.
Unlike the weather-themed disaster flicks that came after (The Day After Tomorrow, Dantes Peak, the more horrible than horrific Volcano), Twister actually deserves a place on a list made up of movies with weather. Sure, it's all kinds of implausible (these people practically snuggle with tornadoes), but it's a lot of fun and has held up well in the special effects department.
Jan de Bont's follow-up to Speed (speaking of films that make their audience forget how silly and unrealistic they are...), Twister moves as quickly as the tornadoes Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, and a young Phillip Seymour Hoffman are chasing. A great soundtrack (augmented by theme song "Humans Being"--the song that ended the Sammy Hagar era of Van Halen) compliments the film by knowing just when to shift up the music to add to the urgency of storm chasing.
Maybe Phillip Seymour Hoffman has a thing for the weather. Or, maybe, he just knows good scripts when he reads them. I'm guessing it's the latter.
Starring with an ensemble cast (Tom Cruise, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, Jason Robards), Hoffman plays a hospice nurse intent on helping an elderly patient find closure. This story intertwines with several others to cumulate in a scene about weather (and frogs...) that helps to drive home the point that we are all connected by our life experiences.
Stephen King has said he hates this Stanley Kubrick-directed adaptation of his novel about a family trapped in a snow-bound hotel as the father (Jack Nicholson) goes slowly insane. I, like most King fans I think, don't quite understand why. Kubrick manages to combine his high-minded cinematic sense with King's chilling story to create a horror masterpiece.
2.) Frostbitten (2006)/Let the Right One In (2008)
What is it about snow that makes horror films that much more effective? This pair of Swedish vampire flicks uses a snow-drenched landscape to enhance a feeling of helplessness and isolation.
Frostbitten has a medical doctor faced with finding out why local teenagers are coming down ill with a mysterious virus. A side effect of a dangerous party drug or something much more sinister? As funny as it is grotesque (bunnies don't fare well...) Frostbitten is a an example of what vampire flicks used to be...before they got all sparkly.
There's no way I can't mention the American remake of Let the Right One In (called Let Me In), which actually opened in theaters just this weekend. I've heard it's competently done and, to be sure, I am curious about it. For my money, though, I'll take the touching and beautiful original every time.
Bold statement time: The Mist is the best Stephen King adaptation ever made. The movie changes little from the main story: After a massive storm, a mysterious mist with possibly out-of-this-dimension dangers chokes a small town trapping a grocery store full of scared people, including David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his young son. An unrelenting tale of survival (with the most dangerous creatures being the ones that are standing right next to you), The Mist is a thoughtful thriller with just the right dash of B-movie and a crushing kick-in-the-gut ending.
