#1: JURASSIC PARK (Dave's Choice)

FIRST OFF---WAIT, WHO HASN'T SEEN JURASSIC PARK? You're probably asking yourself, "Why Jurassic Park?" Why would my boyfriend pick a movie that everyone in the civilized world has seen at least three times as his first Netflix to watch with his girlfriend? Well, I'll tell you. Brace yourselves: I had never seen Jurassic Park.  Okay, so maybe that's a lie.  One afternoon in 7th grade, we came back from a field trip early and their solution to kill time with pubescent tweens was to screen Jurassic Park.  Well, I got a little too scared, but couldn't leave so I think I just put my head down and tried to sleep and the next thing I knew the bell rang we were dismissed to go home.  Needless to say, I never attempted to finish my JP experience—until now




This is not a piece of information I share often with people.  Because it warrants the "Oh my God I can't believe you haven't seen that what's wrong with you?!" response. And I wasn't trying to finish the film anyway.  In fact, I was dead certain that if I wasn't going to hate it, I was at least going to seriously dislike it.  A funny thing happens when someone you're newly in love with suggests you see or do something.  You find a way to soften even your most rigid views and opinions.  I'm sure if Dave told me that cold showers were delightful, I'd be having one every morning now, too.

NETFLIX's DESCRIPTION of Jurassic Park:

A multimillionaire (Richard Attenborough) unveils a new theme park where visitors can observe dinosaurs cloned using advanced DNA technology. But when an employee tampers with the security system, the dinosaurs escape, forcing the visitors to fight for their survival. Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern star in this thrilling, action-packed blockbuster from acclaimed director Steven Spielberg and based on the novel by Michael Crichton.

SIGNIFICANCE TO DAVE: How significant is this movie to the fabric that makes up Dave? Let's just say he shot a very short lived web series that took place on the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios Hollywood called Jurassic Park: The Ride The Show. Dave loves JP, "It's an amazing movie. It caused a whole ripple effect in my childhood. Watching one movie became reading one Michael Crichton book became reading several Michael Crichton books became writing my own Congo/Jurassic Park rip-off on looseleaf paper in the seventh grade. I don't know many people don't like the movie. It's like Back To The Future. It's on the top of our generation's "best ever movies" list. Amazing and realistic CGI. A theme park. John Williams score. Jeff Goldblum being a weirdo. Velociraptors. No movie had a better mixture of awesome."

ERIKA's POST SCREENING REVIEW: Okay fine. I liked it.  I may have liked it more because Dave and I watched it in a hotel in wine country after a super amazing dinner.  While I may have been the only hold out on seeing it, it is pretty clear that this is one of those things like pizza, and cannon ball jumps in the pool on a hot summer's day that EVERYONE agrees on.  Sometimes it's pretty nice to be a "lemming".  I will say there is something weird about having a basic concept of a film because it's in the pop culture ether.  It's like the first time I saw Citizen Kane I thought "Ohhhh. That's what that episode of The Simpsons was about." It's not the ideal way to watch a movie.  It's like watching Usual Suspects already knowing that Kevin Spacey IS Keyser Söze (Oops! Did I ruin that for you? Well, I thought EVERYONE had seen The Usual Suspects. Hurts don't it?).  I can say that it is very satisfying to finally have earned another little pie wedge in the Trivial Pursuit piece pop culture that I've spent my entire life trying to completely fill in.  That said I'm glad I never watched it as a kid.  It would definitely have scared the living day lights out of me to the point where I could not have possibly enjoyed Jeff Goldblum's obnoxiously amazing performance.

I think having seen this viral video "hey!" last summer may have helped my fears of lab created dinos.



UP NEXT WEEK:  Erika's pick Manhattan Murder Mystery.