Twister Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Twister Blu-ray Movie Review

Have a cow, man.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III July 17, 2024

Warner Bros. seems to be operating in stealth mode as of late: in May they quietly re-released the long out-of-print "Silent Space" version of Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity as an affordable keepcase edition, and now they've just dropped a secret remastered Blu-ray version of Jan de Bont's Twister, which was otherwise available as a recent 4K-only release in keepcase or Steelbook packaging. It's hiding inside one of those "Iconic Moments" slipcovers -- which, as a forum member pointed out, looks like a cross-promotion with Chick Fil-A -- and currently very affordably priced at Wal-Mart (in-store and online), making it an attractive upgrade for those who haven't moved on to 4K UHD yet.

Oddly, though, there's one fairly major difference here besides for the 1080p/SDR transfer; namely, this Blu-ray does not include the 4K's outstanding Dolby Atmos mix and also omits one other audio option, neither or which might be a deal-breaker for some. Otherwise, it's fairly identical to that release with a similar menu interface and we get a similar assortment of bonus features, too -- hell, there's even an extra one just for your troubles.

Twister Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Much has been written already about Twister's revised new color timing, a green tint that affects the sequence above and basically disappears after that; it's been beaten to death already in our forums and elsewhere, and of course was already covered in my own recent review of the 4K edition. So rather than go over that again -- or really, anything else about the fundamentals of this new 4K-sourced restoration -- I'll invite to you read that review if you haven't already and devote the rest of this section to how WB's remastered Blu-ray differs from the UHD release.

The short answer? Not much, surprisingly, and the only real differences can likely be chalked up to format limitations. The fact that this Blu-ray's 1080p/SDR can't quite measure up to the UHD's 2160p/HDR10 picture -- whether we're talking about fine detail, contrast, color reproduction, or nuance should come as absolutely no surprise. But the good news is that it still serves up a rock-solid picture that stands head and shoulders above the studio's own VC-1-encoded 2008 Blu-ray, which itself even earned fairly middling ratings for picture quality more than a decade and a half ago. By today's standards it's an absolute dinosaur and this new facelift represents a much better representation on HD home video, so unsurprisingly it should look quite impressive on small to mid-sized displays. Skin tones, depth, black levels, and stability are much improved, with the picture finally taking on the appearance of true film rather than video thanks to the reappearance of actual grain and other film-like textures. What's more is that a few of Twister's less convincing special effects actually might blend in better at this lower resolution, not that it's ever "sore thumb" territory.

Briefly going back to the elephant in the room, perhaps the only slight point of contention is that new color shift that occurs just over 20 minutes into the film; whereas it does look much closer to actual "greenout" conditions than earlier versions (an effect that director Jan de Bont was going for back in 1996 but never quite achieved), those moments look slightly more obvious than their 4K HDR counterparts. Luckily, this is a brief and potentially unavoidable speed bump in an otherwise near-flawless effort, one that holds its own surprisingly well and is encoded better than most WB Blu-rays; in the handful of times I checked, its bit rate hovered consistently in the mid to high-30Mbps range.

Twister Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

So close, yet so far: for whatever reason (disc space?), this remastered Blu-ray does not include the outstanding new Dolby Atmos remix found on the new 4K edition. (There's also a superfluous Dolby Digital 5.1 mix just to rub salt in the wound.) Instead, we get the same Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track found on the old 2008 Blu-ray... which, to be fair, isn't bad by any means and still packs a decent punch. But once you hear the new Atmos mix, it's hard to go backwards. Please note that this Blu-ray also omits both the Spanish dub and Spanish subtitles found on the 4K disc. ¡Mierda!

Twister Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in keepcase packaging with cover and disc artwork strangely identical to the 2008 Blu-ray. In fact, the only difference is its playful "Iconic Moments" slipcover (seen at top), which features a flying bovine and other debris set against an appropriately green backdrop with the accompanying film quote "We got cows".

Bonus features are similar to the 4K UHD edition with one new exception; otherwise, they're listed below in name only. One extra of note is missing, however: the recent retrospective featurette "The Legacy of Twister: Taken by the Wind", which featured director Jan de Bont talking about the new restoration and other thoughts on the film. This actually kinda makes sense because he brings up the new Dolby Atmos mix, which is not included on this disc.

• Audio Commentary

• Chasing the Storm: Twister Revisited (29:00)

• HBO First Look: The Making of Twister (14:04)

• Anatomy of a Twister (8:34)

• Van Halen "Humans Being" Music Video (3:37)

• KINDA NEW! Trailers (4:13 total) - Two theatrical trailers for Twister left off the 4K edition.

Twister Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jan de Bont's Twister is a fun 1990s blockbuster that I enjoyed back in the day and it holds up surprisingly well, both as a thriller and a visceral special effects showcase. The new 4K-sourced restoration -- which includes a few noticeable color changes mentioned above -- likewise holds up respectably on this 1080p/SDR transfer, suffering from surprisingly few compression hiccups and thus clearly beating the pants off Warner Bros.' VC-1-encoded 2008 Blu-ray. It's a shame that the new 4K edition's Dolby Atmos mix wasn't included as well, but this Blu-ray's current rock-bottom price point at Wal-Mart (both in-store and online) makes it an absolute no-brainer for those not equipped for UHD.