Credit: John Larriva, Via

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This past weekend in Los Angeles, artist Brandon Bird—whose excellent work graced a Mercury cover a few years ago—co-curated a Jurassic Park-themed art show… except without any dinosaurs. The JP Show (Just People) was “dedicated to what people love & remember most about the Jurassic Park film series: the human characters.”

I want every single one of these pieces on every single one of my walls, but my favorites are John Larriva’s Ian Malcolm: From Chaos (above), John Olsen’s PARKKRAP (LEX), and Tyler Jacobs’ Nagelsattler. Oh, and the Julianne Moore one, my deep appreciation of which totally does not have anything whatsoever to do with my eternal, undying love for Julianne Moore, nor my eternal, undying love for her character in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the brilliant and determined Dr. Sarah Harding.

With honor and distinction, Erik Henriksen served as the executive editor of the Portland Mercury from 2004 to 2020. He can now be found at henriksenactual.com.

35 replies on “Art Will Find a Way”

  1. Rewatched most of JP the day after T-giving. I had forgotten how totally not good that movie is. There were also a jillion commercials and I think you don’t get any meaningful dino action until over an hour in.

    We gave up just after Newman got his.

  2. @Commenty Colin: You are so wrong. So, so wrong. About everything you just said. I’m kind of upset with you right now. I’m just going to take a break for a minute.

  4. I WILL NEVER STOP LOVING BRANDON BIRD’S PAINTING OF BEA ARTHUR PUNCHING A VELOCIRAPTOR.

    @ERIK: YOU KNOW WHAT A GOOD MOVIE IS? THE CARNOSAUR TRILOGY.

  6. I’m not saying JP (the film) can’t be enjoyed, just that it can only be enjoyed ironically. The book was solid.

    The kids are beyond annoying, Laura Dern’s overacting is painful, and Goldblum (as in the book, to be fair) mentions “elementary Chaos Theory” every other line.

    The dinosaurs still look great, the story itself remains excellent, but boo JP the film. BOO.

  7. Not sure what constitutes “meaningful dino action,” but a dinosaur totally eats a dude in the first 3 minutes.

    Anyway, Jurassic Park is wonderful and great and awesome and wonderful. And great. So there.

  8. Revisted the movie last year when Cort & Fatboy showed it. I was deeply annoyed by the two kid characters, and had completely deleted Jeff Goldblum’s chest from my memory.

    The effects are great when the movie is at night and it’s raining. All the daytime stuff looks like ass now. I don’t think the movie has held up real well, and I’m surprised we haven’t got a “special” rerelease with updated CG and 3D.

  14. Look, I really wanted to like it. I’ve kept on the lookout on Netlflix instantwatch, and I’d even considered renting it in the months leading up to The Events of the Day After Thanksgiving.

    But then I saw it for the first time since I was a kid, and boo. BOO.

  18. I will write in all caps now, as I am feeling strong emotions.

    HOW CAN YOU HATE JURASSIC PARK? IT IS A DELIGHTFUL DINOSAUR ROMP. IT IS BEAUTIFUL AND WONDERFUL AND GOOD NEATO. THE T-REX SCENE IS ONE OF THE BEST MONSTER MOVIE SET PIECES EVER. THE VELOCIRAPTORS IN THE KITCHEN ARE LEGITIMATELY SCARY, EVEN IF REAL VELOCIRAPTORS WERE THE SIZE OF TURKEYS AND HAD FEATHERS. THE JOHN WILLIAMS SCORE IS PURE, AUDITORY GOODNESS. FIE, UPON YOU, SIR! MAY THAT THING THAT KILLED NEWMAN SPIT DINO-POISON ALL OVER YOUR NAUGHTY BITS. YOU SICKEN ME.

    Okay, I’m done now.

  19. Few pop culture fixtures have slipped through my cracks. JP is one of them. Never seen it. I’m curious now in light of this debate. Will pick up on way home and watch.

  20. Ill catch up where CC left off in #1. Best dino movie ever besides one of the old flicks of The Flinstons. Fo real.

    And I say this cuz even so the discovery that VELOCIRAPTORS wore feathers (they did NOT wore feathers, its just a Nat Geo Fad), the velociraptor encounter scene taught me how scary an encounter with a real predator could be. In a kitchen with the lights low. I was a kid for god’s sake and it wasn’t Rated.

  22. Anyone see JP on Flicks on the Bricks a few years ago? I was the guy who spontaneously “WOO!”ed at Jeff Goldblum’s giant shirtless torso, and I guess I should have known that doing that would make EVERYONE ELSE DO IT TOO.

  23. Wait a min – dude rewatched on broadcast TV, with commercial interruptions, on Black Friday? Not exactly ideal viewing situation.

    Combine that with the assertion that the film can only be enjoyed IRONICALLY (while bailing out halfway through) while holding up the book as an example of “solid” entertainment?

    Go back and re-read that book, but stop every five minutes to look at the Nickel Ads, and then stop reading after chapter 19, and let us know how well that reading experience held up to your nostalgic memories.

  24. Oh yeah, I saw Jurassic Park when it first came out. I don’t remember much about it. But, that’s right, Wayne Knight was in it! Saw him in a parking structure at a hotel in L.A. once, but that was eons ago.

  27. SPOILER ALERT! (TSW, DON’T READ THIS!)

    Twenty-six comments and no one mentions how awful the conclusion of the climactic scene was? I mean, the T-Rex suddenly appears to attack the raptors who were just about to eat the annoying kids?! That’s just crappy plotting.

  28. I saw it when it came out and not again since. I did not see the sequels.

    Though in middle school it was popular to verbally harrass fans of the series during lunch. So that may have something to do with it.

  30. There’s like 10 seconds of the alien in Alien and that movie rules. Sometimes the invisible threat is just as scary as big computer graphics.

  31. The fact that adults (at least I assume so ) are actually arguing about this and not in jest is really pathetic…not to mention sad. Seriously, get a life

  32. Jurassic Park: The Legend of Goldblum’s Pecs
    By TSW

    I watched this movie for the first time ever last night. It was ok. Just ok. Casual criticism is totally justified. It would’ve been better without the kids but I know that wasn’t possible. Laura Dern’s scene-to-scene muse appeared to be simple emotions pulled randomly from a hat. Sam Neil was bland. Goldblum’s pecs were a delight but criminally underutilized. Newman’s demise was great. Sam Jackson saying “watch your butts!” was great. I hated the last 20 minutes of Dino chasing indoors. I really hated the very end where T-Rex inexplicably saved their asses as the Williams score soared like it was hero Indy Jones. Which brings me to the awfully mishandled score. Apologies to Rev. Rocktimus but the score rang formulaic and contrived. You could feel it trying to replicate Spielberg scores of yore rather than create its own magic. It soared at weird times, it disappeared for stretches. It tried to unnecessarily force emotion. Pretty average film in the Spielberg oeuvre. Unlike a lot of his films, no reason to see it again (unless they add about 30 more minutes of Goldblum shirtlessness).

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