Jurassic Park

Often times, people complain that a movie isn’t as good as the book it’s based on. Well, ‘Jurassic Park’ may not be the same at the book, but it is definitely a great movie. Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Michael Crichton (based on his novel), it has thrills, action, humour and enough excitement to please any moviegoer.

Iit does get off to a bit of a slow start. After an exciting opening (one that’ll have you jumping), it slows down. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) brings Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler (Sam Neill and Laura Dern) to his private island to see his new biological preserve. His scientists have successfully cloned dinosaurs! There they meet Ian Malcolm (played perfectly by Jeff Goldblum). Seems the three of them are to evaluate the park before opening. Tim and Lex, Hammond’s grandchildren, are also on the island. They’re obviously there to help “humanise” Grant and help him to loosen up.

Of course, things go wrong. Wayne Knight is great as Dennis Nedry, a computer geek who steals some dinosaur embryos and sabotages the computers. A T. Rex escapes and nearly dines on the kids; a truly terrifying scene! But, the best (or worst) of them all are the velociraptors. They’re small, fast, vicious and too damn smart. The scene with them stalking the children in the kitchen has to rank as one of the scariest of all times. It will truly have you cowering in your seat. That the filmmakers were able to do such a seamless blending of real and CGI characters is incredible.

This is a movie worthy of inclusion in anyone’s film library.