It seems strange to be reviewing a movie from 20 years ago, but Jurassic Park is worth seeing again on the big screen. After all, that’s how any movie is meant to be seen; on a big screen, in a dark room with a bunch of other people. Although nowadays you have to sit through all the ads too, which certainly detracts from the pleasure of the experience.

But the movie still works. The dinosaurs are still impressive, although with CGI taking over so many movies it is not as visually dazzling as it was in 1993.

The new 3-D effects are nice, but really add little to the film, which after all, is also a promo for Jurassic Park IV, due out in 2014.

For those few who’ve never seen it, Jurassic Park is about a developer (Richard Attenborough) who clones living dinosaurs from the blood in the bodies of prehistoric mosquitos and displays them in a zoo/amusement park on an island off Costa Rica. He brings scientists played by Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, and his grandchildren, to see the park before it opens and disaster strikes. Just as a storm hits, a rogue employee disables the computers which control the enclosures for the dinosaurs.

So the main characters have to flee for their lives from a rampaging Tyrannosaurus Rex and other nasty meat-eating monsters. Those scenes, especially when the T-rex attacks the kids, are the best part of this exciting dinosaur epic.

Rating: four deer out of five

New on Video

Bill Murray apparently shines in Hyde Park on Hudson playing Franklin Roosevelt.

Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.