Family-friendly adventure mixed with total horror

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2012)

I saw "Jurassic Park" at the theater with my then-girlfriend wife in 1993. There was much anticipation concerning Spielberg's dinosaurs and, as far as that goes, the film delivers. The story is a good-enough stage for the dinosaurs and the characters are okay. As my title blurb points out, this is essentially a Disney adventure with horrific dinosaurs.
The latter is where the film excels, but it takes a whole hour to arrive. The good thing about the long wait is that it creates much anticipation. ("Jurassic Park III" does the exact opposite and suffers for it). When the t-rex sequence arrives it is both most welcome and truly horrifying. Two other thrilling scenes are memorable – the t-rex chasing the jeep and the closing velociraptor sequence, particularly in the kitchen.
As far as the principle cast goes, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum are effective as the male protagonists while Laura Dern is likable enough. She doesn't trip my trigger in the sex appeal department, but that's just a matter of taste. The kids are good, especially the girl (Ariana Richards), while Richard Attenborough comes across as Santa Claus. Wayne Knight plays the quasi-villain and he originally struck me as wandering off the set of another movie. Seeing the film recently, he's still a bit over-the-top and cartoony, but provides a necessary contrast to the other characters.
The film runs 127 minutes and was shot in Hawaii, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.
BOTTOM LINE: The dinosaurs and thrills are A+ while the story and characters are just good-enough. This is a straight-ahead family-friendly adventure with little depth and there's nothing wrong with that, especially since the film delivers what we came for – realistic-looking dinosaurs, and more – total horror.
GRADE: B