I still remember when I saw it for the first time. It was 1994 and I was 12 years old. I might be saying to yourselves "But JP came out in '93!". Well, I am from a very small Island (Porto Santo) and at the time we didn't have a working cinema. We had one (only one screen of course!) before, up till 1990 but it eventually closed down for the lack profit (very very small island remember?). Nowadays we have a theater for movies. So, I didn't have anyway to see movies unless they run in the TV or in VHS format.
After the premier everybody was talking about dinosaurs and about the movie. Me? I was reading about dinosaurs, playing dinosaurs, playing with dinosaurs, dreaming with dinosaurs. Even drawing dinosaurs! One store sell several stuff, from magazines to toys, from perfumes to books, and -you guessed it- video tapes! Since we had few stores with such variety it was usual for everybody to pass by to check for new stuff. One of those times I spotted this:
My eyes popped out from my orbits (just kidding, don't worry) and in my mind there was only these words: IT - MUST - BE - MINE! Then I looked the price tag and my jaw fell down! It was damn expensive, at least for regular VHS price. Living in a small island as many disadvantages one of them being everything is overpriced because the extra transportions you need to pay for the product reach the island. I was very sad because my family didn't have money just laying around to spend it in some video tape. The money was of course to be spent in useful things like food, transportation, cloths, education...you get the point. But this wasn't just 'some video tape'. It was Jurassic freaking Park. I had to get it. At least try it!
So I bugged dad to buy the tape, I bugged mom to convice dad to buy the tape, I bugged sister literally with insects (I would get some crickets from the yard and would run after her with them in my hands. She would run away screaming almost louder than Day9 playing Amnesia...LOL good times). I would almost everyday go the store to check if nobody bought it. Then a few weeks later I managed to convice my parents to buy it! WEEEE! I was the happiest kid in the world!! My mom gave me the money and I was off, straight to the store!! I remember that when I arrived there I tried to act as cool and chill as I could. I felt like jumping around screaming -- but I wasn't going to show it to anyone. Someone might understand the true value of the tape and buy it before me! Not in my watch: Me - "Good afternoon. I would like to take -hmm- (looking around as if looking for something to buy)... that (points casually to the JP tape)." As soon as I got he tape and paid the store owner, I dashed home. The TV was mine for a couple of hours! At home, before seen the movie, I take time to appreciate the tape's case: all black with the famous black, white, red and yellow Jurassic Park logo that I saw many time through the windows of the store. I take the tape out of the case, insert it in the VCR and push 'Play'.
I was caught imediately from the opening scene to the end of the credits ( even the credits are awesome just for the Jonh Williams soundtrack - incredible). I viewed it and reviewed it many times after that and I was always amazed by it. The T-Rex looked so real. IT WAS REAL. The movie punched all the right buttons for me. The humor, the suspense, the action. Everything. My parents didn't care much for the film but I would explain scenes to them anyway: -"And the kids then run into the kitchen to hide, closing the door behind them. Then the raptor came and starts to look for them through the door's window because he can't enter. Then it cuts back to the bunker where the others are reunited. They think that there is only two raptors left. And the lady tells them that yes unless they learnt to open doors. Then it cuts back to the kitchen where the camera zooms the door handle. And then you start seeing it slowly rotate! The raptor is opening the door!!" LOL It was just like that. ^^
But after a while the dinosaurs in my head started to slowly disapear. I was thinking about other things. Other stuff to worry about. And the tape was forgotten, just like the One Ring. Also the technology changed. The VHS turned obsolete (come right in Mister DVD player) and I left home (to the bigger island) to continue my studies. And 17 years passed.
Yesterday, for the first time in decades (more than one at least!) I got to see once more, Jurassic Park. In HD. With GOOD and LOUD sound. Everything I didn't have in the VHS era (not that it mattered at the time). I didn't know how I would react. Would it became boring? Unrealistic? It was amazing. A true masterpiece. I had goosebumps for the entire movie! It was so surreal. I was seeing a movie that I had already see dozens of times so where's the surprise, right? But at the same time I was reviving feelings and emotions that I didn't know I still had. The viewing yesterday was just awesome as my first time!! Of course the movie has is flaws. And yesterday I noticed them for the first time too. But in the end it doesn't matter because for me Jurassic Park is pure magic. I think that every kid has one movie that marks his life in such way that even after 50 years without seeing it, from the moment it starts to the end, you are a kid again.
Some have StarWars. Some have E.T. I have Jurassic Park.
On November 07 2011 07:36 Hochmeister wrote: Love JP, still watch it every year or two with friends along with a few beers. Nothing tops Muldoons demise IMO.
-"Clever girl."^^
I was sad when we died because for me he was the guy with more sense in the whole park. If things go wrong, that's the guy you will want to hang out with!
Theres a new bbc docu series oon dinosaurs (new dinosaurs) btw. I thought it'd be like planet earth but sadly its ridic kids show. Still u might wanna check it. Its on bbc iplayer but u mite torrent
On November 07 2011 07:29 Xeofreestyler wrote: Aww man sweet. I remember playing jurassic park with buddies on the playground when I was 8 years old. Good times!
A movie that I loved when I was little and still enjoy to this day is definitely The Fifth Element.
It's amazing that the special effects in it still today look so great, if you were to take any movie from back then and look at its special effects, they'd look terrible by today's standards.
The T-Rex in the rain scene is one of my most memorable experiences as a child, everything about it was so well done.
Jurassic Park is one of my favorite movies <3 I was obsessed with dinosaurs all throughout my childhood (my cousins and I also "played" Jurassic Park in our backyards). I can never get tired of the movie (I've re-watched it a bunch).
On November 07 2011 08:05 Hot_Bid wrote: I love this movie!
It's amazing that the special effects in it still today look so great, if you were to take any movie from back then and look at its special effects, they'd look terrible by today's standards.
The T-Rex in the rain scene is one of my most memorable experiences as a child, everything about it was so well done.
I'm a musician. I play the sax and the piano (more or less lol) and I had old keyboard from Casio with 4 octaves. I was so in love with the score that I would take the keyboard to the living room, put JP on, fast forward to the end credits and try to play the music by ear:
-Play VCR; -Listen; -Pause; - practice one or two bars in the keyboard; -rewind VCR; -Play VCR again. -Repeat until the melody was right.
Now, even the music sounds better. I take notice all the small details (like the music during the animation explaining how they got the dino DNA; hammond says that the score is temporary, that he wants something more dramatic but the music is just perfect), music cues (when Alan and Tim are getting down the tree to avoid being smashed by the falling car the music ONLY starts when the car is stopped by the first branch after the initial position). Everything makes JP a instant icon movie.
Jurassic Park and Goldeneye the movie (and of course the game, I could go on about how much time my friends and I spent on that) were the most memorable movie going experiences for me as a child.
The LOTR movies as well, which me and my sister would see together every Christmas. I can't believe Fellowship was 10 years ago already
I read the books years ago after watching part of the movie by mistake. As a kid I used to LOVE dinosaurs, I had so many dinosaur toys. Anyway, just last year I managed to obtain copies of all three movies and I have rewatched them several times and still love them! It really helped shape me in wanting to become a 3D animator. In fact, now that I mention it, one of my projects this year is to model, texture and animate a raptor. Of course it is very cartoony in keeping with the the other characters in our short film, but it is still so much fun and I get so jealous of the animators who got to work on the JP set. The compositing was off the charts for its time, and the actual puppets were brilliant, would have loved to help make one! I'm so glad there are many others like me who love it so! Haha I'm a chicken though, I don't like to watch high tension movies alone, so I'd say I am going to watch it when I get home, but it'll probably be with the sound off so as not to scare myself (regardless of the fact I have watched them all at least four times each)
Goldeneye might have been it for me. I don't think I ever saw (or at least cared) about Bond before that. That movie was the shit. Jurassic Park was the shit though. I remember it mostly because I was so pumped to see it, and when I was in the movie theater, the power went out just as the raptors opened the door
Jurassic Park is still one of my all time favorite movies. I can watch it any day and be entertained as hell. Nowadays, it's a fun viewing experience. Back then, it was a visual masterpiece, and a godsend to a dino freak like I was. I still hum the music some times because John Williams is completely awesome.
On November 08 2011 02:03 Southlight wrote: You reminded me of http://xkcd.com/891/ I feel old. But man, the nostalgia lol.
Holy shit Finding Nemo was 8 years ago!?! T.T
I remembered when I first watched Jurassic Park as a kid, the scene with the lamb landing on the car was really gross/scary/terrifying (at least when I was a kid). It was airing on the movie channel a few weeks ago, and I saw the scene again. All I could say about that was, "wtf they just dropped a leg of lamb from the butchers shop on top of the car, doesn't look scary at all".
Independence Day and MIB were soooooo awesome as well.
edit: and some of you may or may not agree, but Mission Impossible (the first one) was pretty cool as well.....until The Bourne Identity came out Which IMO was the awesomest "agent" movie (series) of all time.
Oh man, I LOVED Jurassic Park. I pretty much went though two dinosaur phases: once in early elementary school and once in middle school. Jurassic Park was a pretty big part in igniting those two dinosaur phases.
I remember how I would set up my own Jurassic Park on my game room table with a bunch of little legos, miscellaneous toys, and Jurassic Park toys. I would then pop the Jurassic Park cassette into the VCR and then reenact all of Jurassic Park with my toys while I "watched" the movie.
Damn, I'm being engrossed with nostalgia. I want my childhood back ;_;
JP/dinosaur nut here as well. I had so many of those toys too, those things were so badass, with all the moving parts/sounds they made. Man let me see if I could name the ones I had (probably are still sitting in some box tucked away).
The Velociraptor that would slash its claw, always the coolest dino-villain. The T-Rex that you could pull chunks of flesh out of when it sparred with some poor herbivore that it inevitably killed in the end. The Triceratops that was more often than not the prey for that T-Rex, you could pull its hind leg and it would like buck its head and make a noise. I had the Pteradactyl toy but it was such a bitch to play with b/c its wings would constantly come unhinged, anyways it was also cool cause you could press a button on its back that would flap its wings. What else ... the Dilophasaurus that would spit water ... the Pachysaurus or whatever that was would lower its head so you could ram stuff ... good times.
Then years later I read the books and loved those too. Jurassic Park is the shit.
I went the first week they showed it in Belgium, when it was still watchable for all ages, a week later they restricted it to 12y+. My mom tried to cover my eyes when Ellie went down that basement to turn on the power :D. Had the Panini sticker book, already had loads of dino toys to wreck my Lego armies and got some encyclopedia's which I read like 10+ times. When a teacher would've asked me what I would be like I'd yell "ARCHEOLOGIST" and go ranting about how awesome dino's were :p.
On November 08 2011 00:45 Hawk wrote: Goldeneye might have been it for me. I don't think I ever saw (or at least cared) about Bond before that. That movie was the shit. Jurassic Park was the shit though. I remember it mostly because I was so pumped to see it, and when I was in the movie theater, the power went out just as the raptors opened the door
I feel dumb that my first introduction to Bond was with TWINE(which was good in its own right)
But like the OP it all started with JP, and everytime its on TV or i feel like watching i stop to watch it because its a piece of my childhood
On November 08 2011 00:50 Aylear wrote: Jurassic Park is still one of my all time favorite movies. I can watch it any day and be entertained as hell. Nowadays, it's a fun viewing experience. Back then, it was a visual masterpiece, and a godsend to a dino freak like I was. I still hum the music some times because John Williams is completely awesome.
Great blog!
Thanks
I was actually surprised that during this last viewing and despite already seen JP several times (and knowing how everything goes down) I was like "Come on, Tim! Let go the f***ing fence! F**king brat!! Jump down!! You want to die?!? ARGHGHG!! He didn't jump in time...!!! Why doesn't he jump??" LOL There aren't many movies that do that to me.
"John Williams is completely awesome" - I endorse this message.
Jurassic Park is truly great! I love how the effects still look great today...In fact, they probably look better than today because today all the dinosaurs would be CGI. Great thread, this makes me want to watch the movie again...and the book was bad ass too,as a kid
On November 07 2011 07:29 Xeofreestyler wrote: Aww man sweet. I remember playing jurassic park with buddies on the playground when I was 8 years old. Good times!
A movie that I loved when I was little and still enjoy to this day is definitely The Fifth Element.
.... Omg I loved watching The Fifth Element as a kid. milla jovovich naked O.O
Bander the last time I watched Jurassic Park was with a bottle of gin and my friend
I love the first jurassic park. The whole series was an integral part of my childhood and not until recently did I realize it wasn't just a fun movie as kid, its actually a great movie as an adult too.
It has to be the most subtly hilarious scenes of all time when the lawyer is running from the T-rex and he runs into the bathroom. Then he shuts the stall star behind him, like its actually gonna make a difference hahaha. I just love the detail there.
Some of my favorite lines: "When you gotta go, you gotta go." "Ah ah ah, you didn't say the magic worrd. Please God damn it! I'm tired of this hacker crap." "That is one big pile of shit"
I remember seeing this in theaters when I was 9. Probably one of the best movie experiences of my life, I still love the 1st JP to this day. Re-watched it a good 200+ times lol, can probably quote the whole entire movie word for word.
The book is amazing too, honestly better than the movie - wish they had a lot of what was in the book in the movie though T.T would of been even more epic.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg60/the91whispers/hstedpix/vhs-jurassic.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/jurassicpark123/images/5/59/Jurassic-park-1.png)
I feel old. But man, the nostalgia lol.
