So Nice, We Went There Thrice! "The Jurassic Park Trilogy"

Jurassic Park (1993)

Rated PG-13

Starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Mazello, Ariana Richards, Samuel L. Jackson, BD Wong, Wayne Knight

Directed by Steven Spielberg

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Rated PG-13

Starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postelthwaite, Arliss Howard, Vanessa Lee Chester, Vince Vaughn, Richard Schiff, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Mazello, Ariana Richards

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Jurassic Park III (2001)

Rated PG-13

Starring Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, Laura Dern

Directed by Joe Johnston

The Story:

Part 1:

Billionaire John Hammond (Attenborough) has created a theme park, Jurassic Park, where he's recreated dinosaurs using questionable scientific methods. He needs some validation by scientific experts that the park is safe and sound and ready for tourists. So he enlists paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Neill), paleobotanist, Dr. Ellie Sattler (Dern) and mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) come to the park. However, when corporate sabotage and a hurricane collide at the same time, things don't go so well, and it's a fight to avoid extinction!

Part 2:

Dr. Malcolm (Goldblum) returns to travel to Isla Sorna, the 2nd island that Hammond (Attenborough) had created his dinosaurs at. He had no intentions of going, except that Hammond enlisted his girlfriend (Moore) and she was already at the island. The team goes to the island and winds up capturing a Tyrannosaurus Rex and taking it back to San Diego to headline the abandoned Jurassic Park that had begun development there. Bad idea.

Part 3:

The return to Isla Sorna, and this time Dr. Grant (Neill) returns by being tricked into coming so that his dig would continue to receive funding. This time it's the Kirby's (Macy & Leoni) whose son (Morgan) had vanished weeks earlier. In the chance he's managed to survive the wilds of Jurassic Park for this long, they want to bring him home alive. However, there are some new dinosaurs waiting to join the party, in addition to the threats we've already seen in the previous two installments.

So, I don't think that anyone hasn't seen at least the first part of this trilogy, and if you stop there, that's fine.

It is head and shoulders above the others in terms of story, characterization and just sheer awesomeness of seeing those dinosaurs for the first time.

I actually saw this in theaters when it came out, and the scene where Alan and Ellie see the dinosaurs for the first time... well, it gave me goosebumps then.

20 years later, I still get goosebumps with that scene.

The elements of the actors, the great special effects on the dinosaurs themselves, and John Williams score create the perfect moment where you soak in the fact that you're seeing dinosaurs, and it's very cool.

There are similar scenes in each of the sequels, but it never quite matches the very first time you see Jurassic Park.

The cast is great, especially the cynical Dr. Malcolm, effortlessly deadpanning his way as the snarky voice of reason.

He's fun in the second installment as well, but when he has to be snarky and the hero at the same time, it just doesn't have the same oomph as the character was able to enjoy in the first film.

Which leaves the third film, which isn't nearly as bad as everyone probably remembers it to be. While not as good as the first, most film trilogies or series all suffer through that. The blame also shouldn't be foisted upon poor Joe Johnston, who gets saddled following Spielberg yet still directs a perfectly fine thriller.

All three have been added to Netflix as of last month, so feel free to revisit, or if you've never seen one (or all) of them, get ready for a pretty wild ride.

Final Grades:

Jurassic Park: A
The Lost World: B
Jurassic Park III: B-

Whoops..."Honey, I Shrunk The Kids"

Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (1989)

Rated PG

Starring Rick Moranis, Matt Frewer, Marcia Strassman, Kristine Sutherland, Thomas Wilson Brown, Jared Rushton, Amy O' Neill, Robert Oliveri

Directed by Joe Johnston

The Story:

Frazzled inventor Wayne Szalinski (Moranis) is trying to perfect his shrinking machine.  While he is away pitching the proposal, an errant baseball from the neighbor kids, causes the machine to actually work.  Unfortunately, it shrinks the Thompson kids (Brown& Rushton) as well as the Szalinski kids (O'Neill & Oliveri).  Now the size of ants, the kids will have to survive and make it back to the house and hope that Wayne can get the machine to work again and bring them back to full size.

Another of the 25th Anniversary movies from 1989.

This one is often overlooked when looking at the cinema classics from that year, but it's not a bad effort.

Before CGI ruled the day, this is a throwback to having giant props and stop motion to make the kids seem small.

Moranis gets the manic father routine down pat, complemented by Frewer as the macho (sorta) dad next door who is the polar opposite.

However most of the film is put on the kids to survive their situations, such as the dangers of going through the backyard to get back home.

I never truly cared for the scorpion scene in the movie.  25 years later, it still seems out of place and designed for emotional manipulation. 

Otherwise, aside from that scene, I've got no problems with the rest of the film.

It was the feature directorial debut of Joe Johnston.  A great first effort, and he's had a fairly successful career since then, my favorite being Captain America: The First Avenger.

So if you've got some kids that have never seen it, give it a whirl and see what they think.


Now available for streaming on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: B

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: It's been at least a decade since I had seen it.  While dated in effects, it's still a pretty good story and a great reminder of how fun Rick Moranis was in the movies.