What can I say about Jurassic Park?  The book was probably the third best of the six Michael Crichton novels I have read (from best to worst, "Sphere," "The Andromeda Strain," this one, Prey, Next and Timeline).  I remember recording it for blind listeners back in the summer of 1993, just after I graduated college.  But while they are based on the same dinosaur-filled island, the movie and the book are completely different.

In the movie, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) is not only an ambitious billionaire, he is a lovable old man.  This I must say is an improvement on the book where he is so singleminded and avaricious that Crichton has him devoured by compsagnathi.  (A compsagnathus is like a tiny little velociraptor, but in sufficient numbers they can bring down a human, which we actually saw happen in "The Lost World.")  Also in the book Ian Malcolm dies and Harding, the dinosaur wrangler, survives, the opposite of the arrangement in the movie.  (Or at least, Malcolm appears to die.  Seeing it happen the other way in the movie apparently persuaded Crichton to resurrect Malcolm for "The Lost World.")  One wonders whether Jeff Goldblum, at the height of his popularity in the early '90's, demanded a rewrite before taking the part.  One also wonders whether Harding had to die for Steven Spielberg, the movie's director, to make the point that velociraptors are more likely to survive a stand-up fight than even the best-trained, sharpest humans.  This point was made ad nauseum in the two sequel films.

But if they're so darn smart why does the last velociraptor make a banzai charge against the Tyrannosaurus rex which (quite unintentionally) saves Dr. Grant, Ellie and the kids, instead of slinking away to hunt another day?  I have heard various arguments about this which all boil down basically to "Well you would too if you just saw the tyrannosaurus eat one of your kind."  Maybe if it was my mate or child, otherwise bulls#$t.  Turn it around a second.  If the Tyrannosaurus hadn't come along and the velociraptors had fastened on to Dr. Grant and Ellie, would the kids have sacrificed themselves to save them?  I can definitely see Dr. Grant and Ellie sacrificing themselves if the raptors grabbed the kids first although I can't say I would have done the same (there is a difference between "a child" and "my child").  So, mystery solved; since the dinosaurs were having spontaneous sex changes the one raptor probably was the other's mate and it went crazy with revenge.

"Jurassic Park" set the standard for special effects throughout the '90's and it deserves to be recognized on that score.  The dinosaurs, well, look real.  Other than that, I'm all tapped out on this film.  Just see it, if your parents didn't take you because they were afraid you'd have nightmares (a fallacy -- no human children are eaten).

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12