Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #11 Jurassic Park

Box Office: $407.2 Million Dollars

Oscar Nominations: Best Sounds Effects Editing, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects

Oscar Wins: Best Sounds Effects Editing, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects

MovieRankings.Net: 94/100

Available To Stream: Hulu, Amazon Prime ($4)

Seeing Jurassic Park in the theaters in 1993 felt like you were watching a magic act. This and Toy Story felt like you were seeing something that couldn't be possible. You knew the dinosaurs were fake...but how could they look so real? There had obviously been CGI in movies before (check out The Abyss which had come out a few years earlier) but never this impressive. Mix that with a cast that was focused on great actors more than hiring superstars and you are left believing that dinosaurs could walk the Earth.

You could make a case that Steven Spielberg's 1993 is the greatest year for not just any director but anyone ever in film. He had Jurassic Park and Schindler's List both come out that year. I think you can also put Jim Carrey's 1994 in the discussion (Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber) along with Steven Soderbergh's 2000 (Traffic and Erin Brockovich). Those guys had amazing movie years but I think Spielberg had the best.

It's funny to think where Spielberg was professionally before Jurassic Park came out. He was obviously still a massive director but was in a bit of a slump. His most recent two movies were Always in 1989 (which is a better movie than people give it credit for) and Hook in 1991 (I understand younger people have nostalgia for this movie but it's a terrible waste of talented people). Jurassic Park came out June of 1993, Schindler's List in December. Those two movies combined to win 10 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. This is when Steven Spielberg jumped from being a great director to a legendary one.

Having a movie with a giant premise but having a gifted director and a cast of brilliant actors is one hell of a recipe. Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sir Richard Attenborough are perfect. Especially Goldblum, who should have been nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. John Malkovitch is very good in (#65) In The Line Of Fire but Goldblum's Ian Malcolm is a fantastic character. Even the supporting roles were brilliantly cast with Samuel L. Jackson and Wayne Knight. I even believe the two main kids (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello) are actually scared of these dinosaurs in front of them.

Even with the DNA stuff (which is pretty brilliantly explained), this movie still feels fresh. It's aged remarkably well. A lot of that credit should go to Michael Crichton. His 1990 novel has so many of these clever ideas in it. He also co-wrote the screenplay. This movie's premise was so believable that the network news shows has segments at time asking if we could make dinosaurs from fossilized mosquitos. 

They've made sequel after sequel of this trying to capture the magic of the original. Even Spielberg made a sequel that didn't work. I don't think they'll ever quite do it right. The feeling you had in the theaters seeing dinosaurs walk and chase after humans was so amazing to see. It's very hard to recapture that magic. That's how great Jurassic Park is. It took a concept as basic as dinosaurs and created a perfect vision of it.

11. Jurassic Park

12. Jackie Brown

13. A Few Good Men

14. The Fugitive

15. The Truman Show

16. Fargo

17. Swingers

18. Reservoir Dogs

19. There's Something About Mary

20. Sleepers

21. Schindler's List

22. Rushmore

23. Fight Club

24. Saving Private Ryan

25. True Romance

26. Dumb & Dumber

27. Kingpin

28. Donnie Brasco

29. Heat 

30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

31. Rounders

32. Unforgiven

33. Trainspotting

34. The Game

35. Out Of Sight

36. Carlito's Way

37. Seven

38. L.A. Confidential

39. Speed

40. Gattaca

41. Misery

42. Tombstone

43. Ransom

44. Wayne's World

45. The Insider

46. Back To The Future Part III

47. A Bronx Tale

48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt

49. Eyes Wide Shut

50. The Sandlot

51. Happy Gilmore

52. Contact

53. The Green Mile

54. Man On The Moon

55. Boyz N The Hood

56. Grosse Pointe Blank

57. Independence Day

58. The Rainmaker

59. Go

60. The Firm

61. Magnolia

62. The Talented Mr. Ripley

63. Tommy Boy

64. The Usual Suspects

65. In The Line Of Fire

66. My Cousin Vinny

67. Awakenings

68. JFK

69. Toy Story

70. Home Alone

72. Titanic

73. Billy Madison

74. Apollo 13

75. Braveheart

76. Edward Scissorhands

77. Cape Fear

78. The River Wild

79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

80. 12 Monkeys

81. Stir Of Echoes

82. Mission: Impossible

83. Total Recall

84. Quiz Show

85. For Love Of The Game

86. Being John Malkovich

87. Men In Black

88. Scream

89. Alive

90. Three Kings

91. Glengarry Glen Ross

92. Die Hard With A Vengeance

93. The Blair Witch Project

94. Twister

95. Dirty Work

96. Election

97. Tremors

98. Any Given Sunday

99. The Wedding Singer

100. Clerk