Product Details

• Actors: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck
• Directors: Steven Spielberg
• Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: July 10, 2001
• Run Time: 127 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (438 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303148360
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #113,863 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #39 in	Video > Action & Adventure > Action Directors > Steven Spielberg
  #41 in	Video > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Prehistoric
  #61 in	Video > Spanish Language > Ciencia ficción y fantasía

• This is item 1 in The Jurassic Park Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Steven Spielberg's 1993 mega-hit rivals Jaws as the most intense and frightening film he'd ever made prior to Schindler's List, but it was also among his weakest stories. Based on Michael Crichton's novel about an island amusement park populated by cloned dinosaurs, the film works best as a thrill ride with none of the interesting human dynamics of Spielberg's Jaws. That lapse proves unfortunate, but there's no shortage of raw terror as a rampaging T-rex and nasty raptors try to make fast food out of the cast. The effects are still astonishing (despite the fact that the computer-generated technology has since been improved upon) and at times primeval, such as the sight of a herd of whatever-they-are scampering through a valley. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker

Steven Spielberg's warm-blooded, state-of-the-art dinosaurs are a lot speedier than their nearest movie kin, the galumphing atomic-mutant monsters that crunched Japanese cities under their feet in the fifties and early sixties, and that enables the filmmaker to create dynamic stalk-and-chase sequences. The carnivorous dinos are efficient, resourceful predators: good scream-generators, in movie terms, because they're both intelligent and relentless, like the best serial killers. But neither they nor the placid herbivores inspire anything close to awe, even with the aid of audience stimulants like surging symphonic music (by the shameless John Williams) and repeated closeups of wide-eyed, openmouthed actors. The screenplay, which is credited to Michael Crichton and David Koepp, reduces Crichton's intricately constructed novel to its bare bones: people running away from hungry animals. Spielberg's monsters have a showroom shine, but the novelty wears off fast; for all the ingenuity of the movie's engineering, "Jurassic Park" doesn't have the imagination-or the courage-to take us any place we haven't been a thousand times before. It's just a creature feature on amphetamines. With Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Richard Attenborough. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great movie, bad soundtrack (DTS), August 12, 2001

By	Peter Ashford (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jurassic Park (Widescreen Collector's Edition) (DVD)

The movie is great. What more can be said?

Well, I'll tell you. I bought this DVD to replace my aging VHS tape. The tape actually sounds BETTER! When Universal had the initial master made, the level of the bass track wasn't right. When T-Rex walks, you're supposed to FEEL it. The VHS tape (in THX) and the Digital Dolby DVD both have the bass level set properly.

What did they do? They made a new master (after six months). They did NOT recall the bad DVDs from distributors. The new DVDs are available (they sound great), but VERY hard to locate. They also didn't change the UPC on the case, so there's no way to tell which DVD you're buying, until you open it up. Finally, they didn't tell anyone that a mistake had been made, so that it could be corrected. In short, they didn't so ANYTHING that might cost them one cent.

How do you tell the difference (other than sound)? The bad DVD has a code of 'D2R1' on the inner rim of the disk. The good DVD has a code of 'D2R2' in the same place.

36 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great movie, but DVD falls short of expectations, June 24, 2001

By	Michael Pappalardo (Ronkonkoma, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Jurassic Park (Widescreen Collector's Edition) (DVD)

When a rich entrapreneur finances a bold experiment, and succeeds in the cloning of Dinosaurs, he needs the authorization of a few experts and critics to ok his new attraction after a fatal accident occurs. However, during the tour, a Tropical Storm hits the secluded island of Isla Nublar, and all hell breaks loose....and that pretty much sums up one of the greatest movies ever to grace the silver screen. It was only a matter of time before the release of the Special Edition DVD.

Usually when you see the words 'Special Edition' you can look forward to Deleted Scenes, Outtakes and behind the scenes documentaries. Well, unfortunately, there really isn't much anything 'special' about this. Don't get me wrong, the quality of the movie is outstanding. I have never seen the movie in such great sound and picture quality before. There are a few 'making of' documentaries and other related things. There are also a few trailers. However, there is some footage that is still missing from the movie, footage that was NOT cut in the theatrical release, but was cut in the transition to home video. Now on DVD you would expect some of these scenes back. That is not the case. There really isnt much making the DVD 'special' other than its incredibly high quality and behind the scenes documentaries. There are also some fun facts about the Dinosaurs on the island, but it still feels like there could have been more. All in all, a very good DVD, a must own for fans of the movie.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We're Going to Be Extinct., September 1, 2006

By	tvtv3 "tvtv3" (Sorento, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Jurassic Park (Full Screen Collector's Edition) (DVD)

JURASSIC PARK is one of the best, if not the best, movies made about dinosaurs ever. It's also one of only a handful of movies ever made based on a novel that was already in preproduction before the novel ever was released. It's also one of the first movies to use CGI in significant scenes throughout the film. It's also the movie that gave Sam Neill a break and reinvigorated the career of Jeff Goldblum. The movie (promoted by the release of the novel about a year earlier) got the general public (and not just kids) excited about dinosaurs again and did to paleontology as a major what RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK did to archaeology.

The premise, seeped in pop science, is that a multi-billionaire, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) brings dinosaurs back to life by cloning the dino-DNA taken from mosquitoes trapped in amber. He builds a zoological theme-park he calls Jurassic Park. However, in order to call off a bunch of lawyers after an accident with one of the park's workers, Hammond has to get a group of scientific experts to endorse that the park is safe and viable. Thus, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) arrive to tour the facilities. Hammond's grandchildren, Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim Murphy (Joseph Mazzello), are also along for the ride as test subjects. Due to a hurricane and the shenanigans of a greedy employee, the park experiences a major breakdown and the dinosaurs get loose.

JURASSIC PARK set records upon its initial release in 1993 and it isn't difficult to see why. The CGI effects that have become common in just about every movie since then were in their infancy then, yet the creatures appear completely lifelike. Of course, Spielberg not only used CGI but he had some live action dinos and models involved as well. It was a massive undertaking, but one that had a huge payoff.

There's not much to complain about with JURASSIC PARK. Sam Neill is great as Dr. Grant (the role was originally offered to Harrison Ford and I'm actually glad he turned it down) and Jeff Goldblum is almost always a delight to watch on screen. After 15 years of directing his own movies, Richard Attenborough came back for the perfect part as John Hammond. The action sequences in the film are still as exciting to watch as they were when the film first was in theatres. The movie is classic Spielberg and those are some of the best movies ever made.

This DVD includes a very informative documentary about the making of JURASSIC PARK, some clips from an early production meeting (it's probably the closest an average person can come to meeting the real Spielberg), some storyboards and other illustrations, Phil Tippett's Animatic of the "Raptors in the Kitchen" sequence showing the raptors as they were originally conceived with having lizard-like tongues, trailers for all three JURASSIC PARK movies, a dinosaur encyclopedia featuring the dinosaurs seen in the movie, some production notes, and a list and partial filmography of the cast & crew.