Jurassic Park

Steven Spielberg soared to new heights with this massively successful adventure adapted from Michael Crichton's bestseller. The world's ultimate theme park, featuring genetically re-created dinosaurs, is about to open and owner Richard Attenborough decides to give a sneak preview to a select few, including scientists Sam Neill and Laura Dern. However, all is not well in this new Garden of Eden and, in the jungle, the creatures are restless (when movie scientists tamper with nature, you just know something will go wrong). T rex and his chums are the undoubted stars of the show and the mix of computer animation and models is truly inspiring. Spielberg orchestrates the action with effortless verve and, although it's too long and full of loose ends, only the most Scrooge-like viewer will fail to be transfixed by the thrilling action and the sheer scale of the director's vision. Spielberg is less assured in the department of character development and some of the actors give worse performances than the computer-generated creatures, but, with a landmark spectacle like this, who cares?