‘Jurassic Park’

Though everything that money can buy was bought, a blank check can’t guarantee everything, even in Hollywood, which keeps this 1993 mega-hit from being more than one hell of an effective parlor trick. Based on Michael Crichton’s futuristic novel of catastrophe in a theme park stocked with dinosaurs from the Jurassic Period, it doesn’t disappoint in the uncanny creation of the beasts. Some six kinds of dinosaurs come to life with a verisimilitude that is humbling and that also blends seamlessly with the film’s blander human characters. With the exception of Richard Attenborough, energetic and fun as the park’s entrepreneur, the others, including Sam Neill (center), Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, are unengaging and simplistic. The children (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello, pictured) are convincingly terrified, though. Be warned: Since much of the film’s jeopardy involves young children, parents ought to rule it out for preteens (NBC Sunday at 8 p.m.).