Skip to content
Jurassic Park: The world is a happy place. This film is just as I remember it. Big, noisy and pretty damned scary for a PG.
This year, I have apparently shocked a few people with the classics which I hadn’t previously seen. I guess Taxi Driver and Kes would be top of the list of movies which had escaped me.
The same cannot be said of Jurassic Park. Mrs W and I saw it when it was released (even though it was deep into our cultural desert brought on by small children) and we have seen it oodles of time since. But this was the first time we had revisited it on the big screen and, while it could not possibly leave the same awe-inspiring effect of its opening outing, it is still absolutely superb. Yes, I know that Sir Dickie Attenborough‘s Scottish accent is rubbish and that Sam Neill is about as low-key as action heroes come.
It’s taken me until now to realise the movie’s greatest flaw – where do all of the island’s staff go? I know there’s a last call for the boat but there is no mention of them all leaving and there is definitely one still around – he was treating the dinosaur with food poisoning. I was pointing this out last night and Mrs W’s reaction was simple. “You really are being picky, aren’t you?”
She reckons I should have just sat back and enjoyed which, for 99 per cent of the time, I did. This is from an era when Steven Spielberg was at the peak of his powers. With Jurassic Park he created a monster of a movie which still required the jumpometer six times, even though I’ve seen it at least half a dozen times.
I’ve just realised I’ve forgotten to outline the plot. Well, for those of you who have been asleep for two decades, Dickie Attenborough plays the billionaire who has created an island park of dinosaurs, bred from DNA found in amber. Playing with nature is a risky business, however, and others on the island find out when systems, and, consequently, the security on the island, fail.
Thus, we have a T-Rex and those ever-so-nasty velociraptors on the loose and thrills abound (I’m still not sure how it was rated at PG – I would have thought it would scar young children for life).
It was great to see Jurassic Park at the cinema. It looks and, as importantly sounds, as good as ever and is still worth 9/10.
Check out: everyfilmin2011.blogspot.com
Cert: 
Running time: 127 minutes
Year: 2011
Re-released: September 23rd 2011 (originally July 16th 1993)
Widescreen: 1.85:1
Rating: 9/10
Director: Steven Spielberg
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R. Molen
Screenplay: Michael Crichton and David Koepp
Music: John Williams
Cast:
Dr. Alan Grant: Sam Neill
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Laura Dern
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Jeff Goldblum
John Hammond: Richard Attenborough
Robert Muldoon: Bob Peck
Donald Gennaro: Martin Ferrero
Tim Murphy: Joseph Mazzello
Lex Murphy: Ariana Richards
Ray Arnold: Samuel L. Jackson
Henry Wu: BD Wong
Dennis Nedry: Wayne Knight