Jurassic Park (1993)

: Hot Potato

Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough

Now this is a dinosaur movie! If you haven’t seen it (is that possible?), you simply must! Steven Spielberg created a masterpiece of groundbreaking cinema, based on the book, written by Michael Crichton, about dinosaurs brought back from extinction using DNA cloning techniques. Not only did he introduce very real looking dinosaurs to the screen, but he thrilled audiences with their actions and behaviors. These are not wildly imagined creatures, they are a combination of art, science and technology that simulate what T-Rexes, Velociraptors and other dinosaurs may have really been like. Spielberg and his team of special effects wizards (Stan Winston, Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett and Michael Lantieri, who won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects) consulted with paleontologists to bring as much accuracy as possible to their look and then, modeling living animals, gave them movements that seem to fit their body types. To top it all off, he gave them personality characteristics that make you feel sympathy, fear, even respect for their intelligence and adaptability. The set design is remarkable and the location shots, filmed in Kauai, are lush and beautiful, adding to the visual feast (as if the T-rex on a rampage wasn’t enough). Some of the scenes might be disturbing to young children, but Jurassic Park, which also won the Oscar for Best Sound Effects, is one movie that every movie addict (like me) should have in their library of films. It’s a virtual smorgasbord of potatoes for everyone’s taste and it’s smokin’ hot!

-PotatoPatti