Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Drew has been posting a series of Favorite Summer Movies stories over at Hitfix. Harry ran a piece on the first one where he talked about BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and since then Drew has posted two more pieces. One features the likes of Ricky Gervais and the new batch includes one Mr. Bill Hader.

It's been a great series so far and it's gotten me thinking about mine. The common thread I'm seeing isn't so much about the best movie you saw over a summer, but one that changed you in some way. JAWS, obviously, is my favorite movie of all time. The setting itself makes it the perfect summer movie. But one of the reasons why I love the movie so much is that it has always been a part of my life. I couldn't tell you what age I was when I first saw it. I don't remember a time before JAWS I saw it so young and so often in my youth.

So, I can't really count that one.

I vividly remember seeing BILL AND TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY, which I'm sure was a summer release. It was tied to me getting a new name, actually. The day I was officially adopted by my stepfather we celebrated as a family by seeing Bogus Journey.

While that marked a big moment in my life, the experience itself wasn't life-changing.

I remember the excitement of INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, I remember seeing it opening night in a packed house. I remember my parents taking me to see TERMINATOR 2 twice in the theater, which was unheard of.

All those movies helped shape the geek I was to become, but there is only one film I can remember hitting at that perfect moment at that perfect age. I saw film history change. At 12 I was young enough to still have that childlike wonder without the cynicism that puberty dumps into your brain and I got lost in this film.

I am 28. And I'm willing to bet any 25-32 year old can recall the summer of 1993 with crystal clarity.

JURASSIC PARK had been all over the news as being the most anticipated summer movie of the year. I knew Spielberg, I knew Dinosaurs, but I hadn't seen any at that point, minus a raptor claw, I think, in one of the trailers.

As was tradition, I woke up Saturday morning at my adopted Grandparent's house. I say adopted, but that's not exactly the right use of the word. In my adolescence I lived in a single parent household. My mother had to work two jobs to keep us going after my biological father was given the heave-ho when I was still a newborn. In my preschool a young teacher's aid took pity on my poor mother and took care of me occasionally, ultimately bringing me home to her parents.

Corky (her real name is Marlene, but she always went by Corky) and Vic became my grandparents, essentially, and every Friday after school Vic would pick me up... we'd go fishing or out to Bullwinkles (it was a California thing... think Chuck E Cheeses with 100% more Jay Ward) or just back to their place for a home cooked meal and games.

Anyway, this was my last summer in California. My stepdad was about to be transferred to Austin, Texas, some hellish, desolate desert with nothing but cowboys and cattle. So this was to be my last summer with Corky and Vic.

The weekend Jurassic Park opened I really wanted to see it. I woke up bright and early and forced Corky to take me to the theater. They didn't go to movies hardly at all (I remember they went to see ALADDIN with me, but that's about it), so Saturday morning they took me.

I had stayed up and watched the news the night before, seeing the local cameras going out to theaters all around the area, seeing the massive lines. I hoped it wasn't going to be sold out.

We arrived at the theater, which in my memory was a giant curved screen, the likes of which we don't see in multiplexes anymore. I don't remember the theater's name, but it was near the Winchester Mystery House, I think.

When we pulled up for the first show, the parking lot was full, but there was no line. I went up to the box office, ordered my ticket and waved goodbye to Corky.

I could probably draw an accurate diagram of the theater lobby. I can still smell the popcorn. I bought a coke and some Red Vines and went into the theater, wondering where all those lines I saw on TV were.

The place was packed. I must have gotten one of the last tickets and showed up way after they let everyone in. I got a seat middle of the auditorium, but way to the side. The management made an announcement that they had sold out the show and to please move towards the center to make room at the edges for people looking for seats.

Somehow after we all sat back down again I was dead center.

The Digital Sound logo came up and I remember thinking it was impossibly loud, my first experience with... Was it SDDS? I don't remember. It was a gold disc that exploded into a million pixels after the name was lasered onto it.

Whatever it was, it was loud.

And that was a huge part of the movie. The opening titles was all it took for me. John Williams' menacing drum hits in time with each credit until the title hit the screen.

The raptor attack had me wide-eyed, scared. The screeching of the raptor as it ate that poor dude just trying to lug the crate around felt like it was going to split my eardrums.

I was sucked into the world and I remember my spirit soaring when Dr. Grant was in the helicopter to the island and Williams' "Journey To The Island" track played, the perfect effortless adventure score and I knew I was in for something special.

Remember that Spielberg kept the dinosaurs hidden very well and when I saw that Brachiosaurus, my first full exposure to creature CGI... well, something changed for me. What I was seeing was impossible. That was really a dinosaur and it didn't look like the Harryhausen effects, I couldn't see the fingerprints on the clay or the composite outline.

When our group stumbles upon the sick triceratops I felt the same thrill. Stan Winston's work on that creature alone was enough to capture my imagination. I could feel the life radiating off of that extinct animal, especially when Dr. Grant laid on it and the trike's breathing pushed him up.

From start to finish that movie had me. The T-Rex attack, the dead lawyer, Jeff Goldblum's smart-ass sass, I had a crush on Lex (Ariana Richards), Samuel L. Jackson's arm, "... three...," the kitchen scene and that finale... which, yes... doesn't make much sense (how the fuck did the T-Rex get into the building?), but goddamn was it satisfying.

There were screams in my audience (first time experiencing that, too) and cheers and excited talk after the movie. I stumbled out into the bright sunlight, my mind blown, and there were the lines I saw on the news. I looked at the board and saw the rest of the day's showings had sold out until the very latest shows and there were lines zig-zagging through the parking lot.

I had seen many great movies before JURASSIC PARK, I have seen many films after it that I prefer to it, but the summer of 1993 was dominated by that movie. I bought the soundtrack, I read Crichton's book (and that started me devouring his other works, of which I think SPHERE is a brilliant read, however a terrible movie), I put god knows how many quarters into the Jurassic Park pinball machine, I "dino-sized" all my McDonalds meals in the hopes that I didn't get another damn Galimimus cup and snagged one of the T-Rexes instead and I saw the movie 8 times in the theater.

Actually, JURASSIC PARK bridged the huge transition to Austin. I spent the summer in California taking all my friends and family to see the movie and, sometimes, going by myself again and the last time I saw it in its initial release was at a dollar cinema in December of '93 in Austin.

I can still recapture that feeling when I listen to John Williams' music (which I'm doing now as I write this) or rewatch the movie. My tastes have changed a bit and it's the not the same for me viewing it through adult eyes, but the nostalgia is still there and I still think, outside of Gollum and Kong, Jurassic Park is the best use of CGI creatures in a film. The way Spielberg merged Winston's amazing animatronics with this new technology and had puppeteers executing it... somehow he captured magic.

I don't know if Jurassic Park would be in my top 10 or even top 30 favorite movies if I were forced to draw up a list today, but I can't think of a movie that had that same impact on me, that dominated my every waking thought for an entire summer, that I got more and more excited about with every viewing. I honestly don't believe I can ever have that experience again. To be 12 and at the mercy of the greatest popcorn filmmaker of my generation, to see the birth of brand new technologies (visual and auditory)... All that made JURASSIC PARK the event of the summer for me, one that can't be reproduced and will live only in my warm memory.

Wow, that was a little trip down memory lane. I look forward to reading more of your summer favorites in the talkback below.

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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