Product Description: Experts and others are invited to a theme-park site featuring dinosaurs man-made from dna. From the michael crichton novel. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/24/2004 Starring: Sam Neill Samuel L. Jackson Run time: 127 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Steven Spielberg
Amazon.com essential video: Steven Spielberg's 1993 mega-hit rivals Jaws as the most intense and frightening film he'd ever made prior to Schindler's List, but it was also among his weakest stories. Based on Michael Crichton's novel about an island amusement park populated by cloned dinosaurs, the film works best as a thrill ride with none of the interesting human dynamics of Spielberg's Jaws. That lapse proves unfortunate, but there's no shortage of raw terror as a rampaging T-rex and nasty raptors try to make fast food out of the cast. The effects are still astonishing (despite the fact that the computer-generated technology has since been improved upon) and at times primeval, such as the sight of a herd of whatever-they-are scampering through a valley. --Tom Keogh
great movie The movie is in great condition. Iam happy to say glad I bought it from amazon.
The T. Rex Wants to Hunt! Jurassic Park is one of the best Crichton film adaptations thus far. Though the screenplay is only marginally faithful to the plot of the novel, the basic premise, people being hunted by prehistoric beasts in a tropical paradise, remains intact.
The animatronics and computer technology used to bring the film's dinosaurs to life have aged remarkably well, and the action sequences remain as gripping as ever. The fantastic video quality and available Dolby audio makes for a great viewing experience on wide-format TVs and surround sound systems. DVD extras are sparse for a 'Collector's Edition', but I normally don't care for special features anyway.
This is one of my favorite films and it was certainly a crowd pleaser when it was released in 1993. Spielberg keeps the introductions relatively brief and once the action starts, it continues pretty much unabated until the closing credits. His knack for giving the audience what they want creates a few glaring continuity issues (ex: The T.Rex paddock seems to be at road level when when the T.Rex walks through the fence and between the two cars. Moments later, Lex and Grant must rappel down into the paddock, which is now a long drop down from the road.) but the film is so enjoyable that one hardly notices them.
The relatively one-dimensional characters are nevertheless filled out nicely by the cast, with Wayne Knight in a great performance as Dennis Nedry and Sam L. Jackson adding his trademark, smoke enveloped cool. I can highly recommend this film and DVD version.
An Amercian Classic In the year 1993, Hollywood saw something unlike anything else, the film Jurassic Park. Never before 1993 had dinosaurs been so breathtaking and realistic on the silver screen. The plot is very original. A group of scientists cloned dinosaurs, and are about to open an amusement park where people can see the dinosaurs. The creator John Hammond(Richard Attenborough) invites a group of people, along with his grandchildren, to see the dinos and enjoy a relaxing time at the park. Could anything go wrong, at the time it doesn't seem like it, but something else is going on. Employee Dennis Nedry is planning to steal dinosaur embryos. In order to do this, he causes a security breakdown so he can get the embryos and escape. He isn't the only one that can escape, as hungry dinos also escape. After this, everyone on the island is in danger, and loose dinosaurs are everywhere. That is where the fun in Jurassic Park comes in.
The Prehistoric Past Has Just Caught Up Steven Spielberg's filmmaking career could almost be divided into two categories: adventure and drama. In 1993 he managed to release films in both genres. First came Jurassic Park, a science fiction adventure based on Michael Crichton's brilliant novel and then came Schindler's List, a Holocaust drama based on the haunting book by Thomas Keneally. Spielberg's filmed versions of these two stories were groundbreaking. Jurassic Park set a new standard for special effects in moviemaking, while Schindler's List proved that Spielberg could tell a serious, emotional story. With Jurassic Park Spielberg had to overcome the gargantuan challenge of creating realistic, believable, lifelike dinosaurs that would share the screen with actors. There were a number of approaches that he considered for bringing the prehistoric titans to life. His first idea was to use full-size animatronic robots for all of the dinosaurs, but this was too costly and too dangerous to do (not to mention highly unrealistic as it would have required years of technicians developing new mechanical elements). His second idea was to use "go-motion" animation (a variation of stop-motion animation, in which a model is photographed one frame at a time in order to create the illusion of movement) to create the dinosaurs, but this proved to be too time consuming and lacked the photo-realism that he was striving for. Spielberg then gathered together some of the greatest minds in the special effects field. He and Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, Stan Winston, and Michael Lantieri discussed the possibilities. Dennis Muren, who had just worked on the revolutionary computer-generated T-1000 character in Terminator 2, suggested that CG (Computer-Generated) dinosaurs might be their best bet. Spielberg was desperate for a quick solution so he told Muren to show him what could be done with CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) and Muren shocked Spielberg with a film clip showing skeletal dinosaurs running through a field. A later test, which was even more impressive, showed a tyrannosaurus rex stalking for its prey in the harsh sunlight (one of the most difficult illusions to create because of the precision needed for believable lighting, reflectivity and shadows). Spielberg gave Muren the go-ahead and film history was made. Utilizing Dennis Muren's computer effects, Stan Winston's animatronics, and Phil Tippett's understanding of realistic movement they set out to create naturalistic dinosaurs. They even consulted Jack Horner, an esteemed paleontologist, to assist them in their efforts. In June of 1993 the highly anticipated film was released to eager audiences. Both audiences and critics were blown away by the most realistic depictions of dinosaurs ever caught on film, but not everyone was wowed by the film itself. Some critics felt that the story was oversimplified, that the philosophical subtext of the novel was lost, and that the characters were shallow and uninteresting. Even so, the film was a worldwide success and spawned two sequels (The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III) and a boom in movie merchandising.
The story focuses on an eccentric capitalist, John Hammond, who uses modern science to genetically engineer living dinosaurs from cloned DNA. He plans to open an amusement park on a remote island near Costa Rica, where people can observe and study these ancient leviathans for a price. However, Hammond is suffering from legal setbacks. His investors have doubts about the park's safety, so Hammond invites Alan Grant, a paleontologist and Ellie Sattler, a paleobotanist to visit and endorse the park. Also along for the ride are Ian Malcolm, a charismatic mathematician and an expert on Chaos Theory and Donald Gennaro, an irritatingly skeptical and greedy lawyer. Hammond even invites his two young grandchildren, Lex and Tim, saying that they are the target audience and therefore perfect to prove the potential allure of the park. But it's not long before Malcolm is proven right and chaos engulfs that island. One of Hammond's employees, Dennis Nedry, betrays him and steals dinosaur embryos, which he plans to sell to a rival research company. In order to obtain the embryos, Nedry turns off the park's automated security system. Naturally the dinosaurs escape and Jurassic Park ceases to be wonder to its visitors and begins to terrify them. During a tropical storm Alan and the two children are separated from the rest of the tour group and their weekend excursion becomes a frightening struggle for survival. Can they survive monstrous predators from the prehistoric past?
Though the film doesn't match Spielberg's Jaws in its portrayal of complex characters facing a primal force, it does succeed as an intense sci-fi thriller that will stun its viewers. The talented cast includes Sam Neill as Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Ellie Sattler, Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm, Richard Attenborough as John Hammond, Ariana Richards as Lex, and Joseph Mazzello as Tim. Other cast members include Samuel L. Jackson, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, B.D. Wong, and Wayne Knight.
The DVD includes the following bonus materials: The making of Jurassic Park documentary, early pre-production meetings, animatics sequence, storyboards, dinosaur encyclopedia, production notes, cast and filmmakers' bios, and theatrical trailers for all three Jurassic Park films.
I also recommend the beautifully evocative soundtrack by John Williams.
Wait For the Blu-Ray Edition Everyone here seems to already know the plot, given that it's 10+ years old, but I've not seen too many comments on the actual quality of the movie.
I rented it last night and found it was very disappointing. I was expecting better from both audio and video. The picture is not very good (I'm comparing it to Batman Begins on DVD), which was a surprise given the cutting edge effects and the budget at the time, but the audio quality was also poor. I had to bump up the volume even during the inital encounter with the T-Rex. I was expecting to rattle the dishes during this scene. Man, it was a major let-down.
I have to assume that when the blu-ray edition comes out, they'll correct both issues, so with that said, even at $20.00, for all three, it's still not a great deal (considering the first movie was the only one, of the three, worth watching.) so you might want to rent it first and judge for yourself.
If you are looking for a movie worthy of your home theater, check out the Transformers movie on Blu-ray. HighDefDigest.com contends that it is a very good movie for showing off your system. I bought the movie and wholeheartedly agree (even if it is a Michael Bay picture.)
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
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