36. "Kids!"
It's my E.T...
I have a misanthropic, thirty-something friend who doesn't care for Jurassic Park. He doesn't dislike it but it's not something which excites him either. I could say the same about E.T. which he loves. I think the Spielberg movies you grew up with are the ones that have that magic for you. They are brilliant kids movies and if you catch them at the right age I think it increases their power. This also explains why many people my age (myself included) really like
Hook, which almost everybody else seems to chalk up as one of the director's missteps.
37. "He left us! He left us!"
Good child actors...
When it comes to child actors, people can be
mercilessly cruel. So it helps Jurassic Park that the kids - Tim and Lex - are actually played by pretty good actors.
Joseph Mazzello (above) has since been in
The Pacific and
The Social Network. And whilst Ariana Richards can't list similarly stellar recent credits, she is also very good in JP: a terrific screamer who conveys fear especially well.
38. "I think we're out of a job."
Giving the A-list the finger since '93...
The film's pursuit of spectacle over characterisation was criticised by critics at the time and has since been decried in numerous academic texts. However, Spielberg's decision to make the dinosaurs - and the ground-breaking visual effects - the attraction of the movie rather than stars meant that he was able to cast interesting character actors in all the roles rather than bland big names. Jurassic Park has been cited as one of the 1990s films that contributed to the current decline of the traditional film star (see
Larry Crowne for proof). I'm not certain that's a bad thing.
39. "Shoot her!"
What... an... opening... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5zboV3_9KY The rustling of the trees and music which seems to imply the howling of unseen nocturnal animals make the opening scene of the movie really cool. As does Bob Peck shouting "shoooooot her!" We don't see much of the raptors here and the scene ensures that we start off excited and are anxious to find out more, keeping our interest up during all the subsequent more talky scenes of exposition. It's an example of how to properly pace a movie.
40. "Best Visual Effects 1994"
Also won Oscars for Sound and Sound Effects Editing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGsSXHm6JD4 The film won three Oscars for technical achievements at the 1994 Academy Awards ceremony, where the film's full-size animatronic t-rex also made an appearance on stage that evening, giving a young
Elijah Wood the winner's envelope. The late and legendary
Stan Winston was one of the recipients on the night, but such is TV land's lack of respect for the technical side of the industry that the winners were forced to spend their time on stage (less than 10 seconds) shouting over each other as the music played.