Reviews by Matt

Whenever I tell someone that I love movies I always get the same question, “What’s your favorite movie?” I have given plenty of answers to that—“I really don’t have one,” “It all depends on my mood” or the generic answer of “Casablanca.” As great a movie as I think it is, it is not my favorite (easily top 5 though). It has taken me a while to really come up with an answer—a true answer—to that question, but now I think I have it.

“So Matt, seeing as you love movies so much, what is your favorite movie?”

“Without question, it would be Jurassic Park.”

The short answer to the “why” would be because it is awesome. The long answer is:

Over winter break I bought the “Jurassic Park” trilogy. I quickly watched all three and tossed the third movie in to my closet in hopes of forgetting it ever existed (if only). As I watched the first, I was reminded of how much I loved it.

For me it started when, my parents bought the VHS copy from McDonalds in some deal—I think they also got “Field of Dreams” and “Back to the Future too. I was, by their standards, not old enough to watch a PG-13 movie, so I had to wait. When I did finally get to see it a few years later, I loved it.

While rewatching “Jurassic Park” on DVD I was shocked at how well it has held up in the 17 years since its release. Today it would have been all computer-generated dinosaurs. Back then the combination of practical puppets and CG dinosaurs was top notch. Even today they look amazing and I think it really shows what can be done when effects are used…well, effectively.

So besides the fact that it keeps its effects charm almost two decades later, what makes it my favorite movie? I did a post a few months back about movie moments. For me a great movie is made up of great moments. “Jurassic Park” has some of the most memorable in movie history. You have only to look to when Drs. Grant and Sadler arrive on the island and see the brontosaurs for the first time, it is stunning.


See what I mean? It is at that point that you know you are in for a ride.

There are plenty more, the T-Rex attack, the two kids hiding from the Velociraptors in the kitchen, I could go on. There are so many moments that make the movie’s two hour running time just fly by.
This choice is not one made to make me look better. It is easy to pick a classic movie and seem smart. I have watched plenty of classic movies and enjoyed them greatly, but none has reached the status of “my favorite movie.” There were times early on in my love of film that I would have felt required to use movies like “Casablanca” as my favorite. They are seen as amazing pieces of cinema by so many.

I say “Jurassic Park” because I have never been bored when watching it. There are times when watching “Casablanca” that my mind wonders. “Jurassic Park” is entertaining and riveting. I soak up every single second of it with the same wide-eyed joy I did when I watched it for the first time.

I say that this is my favorite because it is just a damn good movie. It is a fun blockbuster but it is done really well. Sure there are a few things I take issue with in the movie—like how no one can hear the T-rex eat the goat or approach the main complex in the final scene—but that does not take away from my pure enjoyment of the movie.

I cannot say that “Serenity” is my favorite because I know I am a fanboy and that my vision is clouded and my judgment is impaired—like beer goggles, but you know, for movies.

“Jurassic Park” is a movie that is where it is on my list because of the simple fact that it is a great movie. I do not like it because I feel I have to because of the pressure of being a movie geek, or because I have a connection to the material in some way. I like it because I do. I put it at the No.1 spot because I can and it deserves it. Do I really need any other justification that that?