Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park

A wealthy entrepreneur secretly creates a theme park featuring living dinosaurs drawn from prehistoric DNA. Before opening day, he invites a team of experts and his two eager grandchildren to experience the park and help calm anxious investors. However, the park is anything but amusing as the security systems go off-line and the dinosaurs escape.

  • Released: 1993-06-11
  • Runtime: 127 minutes
  • Genre: Adventure
  • Stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, BD Wong, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, Gerald R. Molen, Miguel Sandoval, Cameron Thor, Christopher John Fields, Whit Hertford, Dean Cundey, Jophery C. Brown, Tom Mishler, Greg Burson, Adrian Escober, Richard Kiley, Brad M. Bucklin, Laura Burnett, Michael Lantieri, Gary Rodriguez, Lata Ryan, Brian Smrz, Rip Lee Walker, Robert 'Bobby Z' Zajonc
  • Director: Steven Spielberg
 Comments
  • IonicBreezeMachine - 24 May 2024
    Spielberg redefines the modern blockbuster once again in a high concept rollercoaster that still holds up
    On the island of Isla Nublar, eccentric visionary and bioengineering magnate John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) is constructing Jurassic Park, a mysterious new amusement park. After a worker accidentally dies, Hammond's investors send lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) to inform Hammond, they have concerns about the viability of the park and insist a panel of experts tour the park and sign off before any further developments are undertaken. Among the experts invited are paleontologists Doctors Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and chaotician Doctor Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). Once at the park it's revealed the main attraction is none other than real life dinosaurs brought back to life by genetic engineering. As the experts embark on an automated tour of the park with Hammond's grandchildren Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards), a disgruntled tech worker for the park Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) enacts a plan of industrial espionage which has far reaching consequences that lead to the prehistoric beasts running amok.

    Jurassic Park is a 1993 adaptation of the 1990 book of the same name by Michael Crichton. Originally having been conceived as a screenplay before being turned into a novel, the book became the subject of a bidding war with many different studios and directors (WB/Tim Burton, Columbia/Richard Donner, and Fox/Joe Dante) all chomping at the bit to acquire the rights with Universal acquiring the film for Spielberg as part of a package deal that included a production commitment to Schindler's List. While initially intended to use computer assisted stop-motion (called Go Motion) that had been used for things like ED-209 from Robocop or the Rancor from Return of the Jedi, Spielberg's dissatisfaction with the look of the dinosaur sequences lead to experimentation with doing animation fully on the computer in a move that would set the standard for effects filmmaking and blockbuster filmmaking throughout the 90s (and arguably even today). A critical and commercial juggernaut in its day, Jurassic Park set the standard for blockbuster filmmaking for the decade and even inspired a long lasting media franchise that continues to this day. Jurassic Park is the best kind of blockbuster sci-fi fun with all the technical polish that elevates the experience.

    Playing like a mixture of a disaster movie and a monster movie, Spielberg avoids going diving into uninteresting melodrama or dry technical details that can sometimes be the undoing of a film like this. Mixing Chrichton's detail techno writings with some light tapering from co-writer David Koepp, Spielberg and his crew create an engaging lineup of characters who are memorable and engaging. Sam Neill is quite good as Dr. Alan Grant who plays the character as someone who really doesn't like children but also give him a nice sense of humor and an arc that yields a nice payoff. Neill is complemented by Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler who has a warmer more welcoming personality but is just as competent as Dr. Grant and also holds her own during some of the thrill sequences. We also have Richard Attenborough as John Hammond who is massively likable as a showman in over his head with a kind of Scottish air of Colonel Sanders by way of Walt Disney. Jeff Goldblum is the breakout character of the film in Ian Malcolm and his status as the smartest guy in the room couple with a suave and relaxed sense of humor show why this character was so liked. Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards are also very good as Tim and Lex (even if the screenplay does rely on the occasional boneheaded move from them).

    And of course you can't talk about Jurassic Park without talking about the dinosaurs. As true today as it was then, the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park look fantastic. Using a mixture of Stan Winston animatronics and computer assisted visuals whose work comes from Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett and Michael Lantieri to name but a few, Spielberg and company do give you the feeling that dinosaurs are back from the dead. While upon rewatch there's the occasional jerkiness or slight break in compositing illusion, most of the time the computer effects and physical elements are seamlessly used to create thrilling and dynamic interactions. While the story carries the subtext of companies wielding technological advances in an irresponsible manner, this is kept secondary to the main adventure/survival aspect of the film and helps to give the film weight without weighing it down.

    Jurassic Park is peak blockbuster filmmaking once again from the man who invented the concept and framework of the modern blockbuster. Filled with likable characters, engaging setpieces, and groundbreaking special effects, Jurassic Park earns a lot of goodwill being entertaining and clever enough even in spite of those little gripes that come from having seen this movie several hundred times because it's just that good.
  • colinesq-859-519335 - 9 March 2024
    A chilling allegory about the dangers of capitalism
    In 1993, Jurassic Park took the world by storm. It was everywhere. The merchandising was unparelled. Jurassic Park was on the screen and it was in every home. It continued to thrive on home video and is still celebrated to this day. Sam Neil is great but Sam Jackson needed a bigger role and more lines. Wayne Knight shines as Dennis Nedry, the goofball criminal who is sick of being abused and ignored by his employer, so he turns to finding a way to get compensated for the work he's done. Some may argue that he puts many lives at risk, but in the world of capitalism Dennis Nedry was not actually the bad guy. John Hammond is guilty of criminal negligence, but he is rich and he has lawyers and insurance companies to back him up. Hammond makes decisions that lead to many gruesome deaths and we are all along for the ride. Capitalism is evil, even when dinosaurs are involved. Especially if dinosaurs are involved.
  • michvanbeek - 8 January 2023
    When Dinosaurs ruled the world
    No matter what the did in the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World saga, non of the five sequels came even close near Spielberg's absolute classic. I even want to go as far by saying no dinosaur movie made from what filmmaker so ever came close to Jurassic Park. That is the second time Spielberg does this, because in my opinion Jaws did the same thing with shark movies.

    Even thirty years later, this movie still does not feel outdated in any way. This movie still serves as a blueprint for modern day monster movies and made the world fall in love again with dinosaurs. Michael Chrichton wrote the adventure of a life time and Spielberg made it cinema history.
  • shamilmoorad - 11 October 2022
    One of the best movies that made universal studios famous!
    Bravo Bravo One of the finest terrific extrodinary movies of all time, it's more than an masterpiece, it's magnificent from start to finish.

    I absolutely love this movie too bits.

    It's 127 minutes but does not feel long at all.

    The performances are top notch, the directing is incredible, the visual effects is a gem which deserved its oscar, the sound is brilliant and deserved its 2 oscars.

    This unforgettable science fiction adventure movie is popular and amazing.

    The storyline never runs out off energy.

    This is even awesome in imax cinemas as a matter of fact with its technology.

    It deserved its 3 oscar awards.
  • thegreat_sanatani - 16 August 2022
    Never boared
    One of my favourite films; I enjoy seeing it repeatedly and never get tired of it or either of the trilogies.

    The first section is where it all began, and the story is great throughout.

    No other movie about humans and dinosaurs coexist made a much bigger impact than Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park." One: It works as a simple yet effective piece of filmmaking with Spielberg's sophisticated direction, clever writing, and a delicate sense of timing. The highly dramatic score by John Williams is one of the best film scores I have ever heard, and it intensifies the whole movie with full-bodied precision. The movie has thought-provoking dialogue that is unforgettable. The sounds effects are haunting and daunting; The crickets and birds are used for the ambience, and the team of sound designers mixes the pitch-perfect animal sounds to create the raucous vocalizations for the dinosaurs.