Walking out of the theater shaking like a leaf

Rating: 8/10 (24 April 1999)

My friend Chris was one of the first people I know to see this film. He told me it was "scary".
"Scary? It's a kids movie," I replied in disbelief, certain that I knew what I was talking about based on the previews I had seen and nothing else. At this point, I hadn't even read the book yet.
"No way man, it's scary stuff," he assured me.
"OK, well, I'll be seeing it soon anyway," I told him, thinking that maybe he was too easily frightened or had begun to lose it.
My wife and I went within the first week of its release, no one else we knew had seen it aside from Chris. No one else could confirm or deny my expectations. We saw it at the York Theater in Toronto, a fine theater with all the Dolby Digital THX sound that today is far more commonplace. We sat in a packed theater in quite possibly the best seats in the house and prepared ourselves.
We couldn't prepare enough.
From the first appearance of the menacing T-Rex until the end of the film, I didn't relax for a moment. Not even in the "calm-down-it's-sleepy-time" part of the film. I was literally on the edge of my seat in sheer terror and awe of the film. It is by all definitions of the word, a thriller.
It is with regret and a little shame that I confess that in my raving of the film, I may have spoiled it for others by raising their expectations too high, which is mainly why I like to see some films early on. My expectation was that this film was made for children and would probably be entertaining, but instead it floored me completely. I had difficulty with basic motor skills trying to exit the theater, I had been so tense throughout the entire film I could barely walk away.