June 11, 1993...A look back 10 years later. (1 Viewer)

A few months ago I posted a topic on this same subject but I thought it only fitting to honor it one the actual day. 10 years ago today the movie going experience was changed forever with the release of Jurassic Park! This is still one of my favorite films and I think it holds up great. The cg looks just as good, if not better, than most films that use it today. It didn't try to show off the cg it was just part of the story. To many films today draw attention to the cg and away from the film itself. For 2 short hours dinosaurs where alive again. Not to forget, but it also introduced us to DTS. My personal opinion is that DTS is the best in theater and home theater sound. So grab your JP DVD, dust it off if you have to, pop some corn and experience what you felt 10 years ago one...more...time. I can't believe it has been that long, it feels like it was yesterday. Too bad it is not playing it a theater somewhere, I'd love to see it on the big screen again. Let me be the first to wish Jurassic Park a happy 10th year anniversary.

Hello all. I too posted awhile ago on this topic, but wow it is finally the day. Man, what an experience it was then and still is now. Maybe in another 10 years we'll get a theatrical re-release. Anyhow, who cares about the DVD, get out your DTS laserdisc (I am later tonight) and play this one loud. I'm having some friends over, and it's their first DTS laser experience. I'm sure it won't dissapoint. Happy Birthday DTS and Jurassic Park!


AJG

Thought this was Braveheart. Was it 94 or 95?

Jurassic Park was a very significant film for me. I was eleven when it was released and saw it a total of seven times. I bought some of the posters and showed them off in class. They decorated the wall by my bed for years.

The novel was also the first adult novel I ever read. I tried to finish it before the film came out, but missed it by twenty pages or so.




(I wish I could say something more elegant, but I've been drained from working on a paper all day.)

Oh wow. If I wasn't going to be watching this later this month, I'd watch it today. oh well, it'll get play in a few weeks time.

I saw this in one of the Century theaters in San Jose, and if I recall correctly, the screen was massive, the sound was great, and when the T-Rex let out a roar for the first time, most, if not all, of the people shook their seats. That might've been the best theatrical experience of my life, but seeing as I was only 10 years old, I don't think I was old and knowledgeable enough to fully appreciate it.

I saw it a year later somewhere in west africa. I couldn't wait, the pre-release hype and merchandise had been all over the "western" world for ages. It was all over my video game mags.

When we finally got it, the presentation was tremendous. At the end of the first T-Rex sequence I had slipped halfway off my seat and so had all of my friends! I went home I told my sister and my aunt (Who I was living with at the time) they had to go out and see this. They did and weren't dissapointed.

[EDIT]How did I manage to forget to include this in my list of potential top 20? I need to watch it three more times over the weekend to make up for it .

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Holadem

Wahay! Happy Birthday Jurassic Park!! 10 years old eh? Growing up fast. I wonder how the little ones JP2 and JP3 are doing, baby JP3 still wetting the bed?

Birthday boy JP1 was a milestone in movie history, the first photo-realistic use of CGI on film, the dinos looked damn real to me, I was gobsmacked by those effects back in '93, I think I had tears in my eyes when I saw the Brachiosaurus for the first time!

Terminator 2 had incredible, morphing effects 2 years earlier but they still LOOKED like just really clever effects, the T-Rex and the raptors looked like they were actually there with the actors, fantastic stuff and still my favorite of the three Jurassics.
On its release JP1 became the highest grossing film of all time (unadjusted), until Titanic came along.

ps. Jurassic Park was basically a reworking of Westworld by the same author Michael Crichton, a new tourist attraction goes awry killing everyone.

Props to one of the legends.

I remember reading about how Spielberg had bought the rights to JP, right before the book even came out. MY mother liked Crichton, and read it, and told me I should (I was in High School). I read the first 40 pages one day. The next day, I picked it up when I got home and never put it down until The End. I still recall the novel's T-Rex attack as being the most frightened I've ever been. No visuals. Just sitting in my bed.

Needless to say, I was quite excited at the prospect of the film. A few years later, and there I was. The film is a landmark, no doubt. No other film ever put the audience with the actors/characters so completely. Their awe at the dinosaurs was our awe. We went to see the film for the same reason they wint to Isla Sorna (Nubla?).

Going beyond the ground-breaking effects...it was a GREAT summer movie.

And the dts was awesome.

Great thread for a great classic.

Take care,
Chuck

Wow. I went back to the theater 13 times to see Jurassic Park. That's probably my highest record for multiple viewings of a film (followed closely by Titanic at 11 times...hey...I had a thing for Kate Winslet nude and seeing Leo's character die for the 11th time! So sue me...)

I think I'll pop in the DVD tonight for some good ol' dino stompin'. Should make for a few entertaining hours! Man, I'm glad I have a DTS system.

Happy Birthday Jurassic Park!

I remember walking out of the theater stunned at what I had just seen. Believable dinos wreaking havoc on the misguided humans. Movie magic. Ten years later the movie is still amazing to behold.

I know what I'm watching tonight.

Chris,

Thanks for bringing this fact to my attention. To echo Brian's sentiments - though to a smaller degree - this is my movie I saw the highest number of times in theaters (3). The first was by far the best: packed house opening weekend, dts, and with four 14 year old girls (yes I was their age at the time). Rarely have I sat with a more responsive audience - maybe the geeks at the opening of ID4 - but nothing beats four girls screaming their lungs out and clutching your hands in fear! The dts rocked - again it left an impression not surpassed until The Phantom Menace - but I didn't get to hear it with that soundtrack again until the DVD. So tonight I will bow before the visual and aural delight that is Jurassic Park. Heck, I might finally break down and buy The Lost World and make it a double feature!

Pieter

As great of a "spectacle" as JP was, I made the mistake of reading the book first. I've never been able to look at it too favourably as a film afterwards. With that said, a GREAT job, and truly a landmark style movie.

I remember seeing Jurassic Park in the theater quite vividly. It is to this day my best theatrical experience. I saw it at "The Dome" in Pleasant Hill, which has one of the biggest, if not the biggest, screens in Northern California, the theater is MASSIVE.

It was the summer after my first year of college and I went to go see it on the very first showing on opening day, by myself. The movie floored me. The story, the effects and the sound, everything about this movie I just loved.

I would love to see it again in the theater, especially at The Dome.

Damn. I thought this was a thread about "Last Action Hero"....

One of the best thrills from seeing this film was sitting between two female friends who kept grabbing me during it.

Great idea for a thread. Happy b-day to the original JP! I'm with you guys...I think it's an excellent film. Especially when compared with the lazy-ass sequel...but why focus on the negative?

I remember seeing the original Jurassic Park during its opening weekend and I was quite simply BLOWN away. And even back then I was a tough-to-please cynical bastard.

Funny to hear Spielberg in the JP DVD features wondering aloud where CGI will take movies over the next several years... If he only knew...

I just read a few old-school reviews of the film and I noticed that a few critics (including Mr. Ebert) semi-knock the film for a spotty narrative and sketchy characterizations. I'd respectfully disagree...especially compared to the sequel.

I'd absolutely rank the original Jurassic Park alongside such Spielberg classics as Jaws and E.T.. It's got gee-whiz wonderment, effective doses of humor, a swell "Indy Jones lite" adventure vibe, the crafty science stuff is brilliantly fascinating, and the effects are just astoundingly cool. The more I see the original flick the more I admire it.

And to say it's been an influential movie would be a massive understatement.

Eliminate Wayne Knight from the film and it'd rank in my Top 20 of all time.

I remember going to the advance screening of it on June 10, 1993. I wound up going with a ton of people. Friends, family even my Media Tech teacher was there. We all took up about 2 rows. I remember The Flintstones teaser that played in front of the movie. The audience sang along with it.

It was my first experience with digital sound in the theater, and I had to make sure that the theater I was seeing it in was suitably equipped. It was one of the most magical movie experiences I ever had.

In retrospect, the movie is pretty empty (it can't compete with films like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Star Wars) but at the time I was really impressed with the movie. It re-awkened my love of going to the movies, a passion that hasn't gone away in 10 years.

Neil

Yep, I was 10 years old when this came out. As a suprise my parents told me they had tickets to the sneak preview the night before it opened. I was enthralled by it. The first T-Rex scene was the most scared I had ever been, even though I knew it was only a movie. I immediately labeled it the best movie I had ever seen. While my opinion of it has come down over time, it is still one of my favorite films. Just pure movie magic. It's still as exciting as I remember it.