I do, too. To me a lot of the charm of the original was the setting of Depression-era New York. I also thought that the "prehistoric" atmosphere of the island was enhanced by the black-and-white film and the stop-animation technique, which I'm not sure a director today could even try to duplicate (although I guess Ray Harryhausen is still alive and is training a couple proteges--he could do it). I think if Jackson's going to do it well part of the challenge will be how to apply modern fx without losing the atmosphere of the original. DeLaurentis did a good job on the fx but he lost some other important stuff through poor casting choices, adding PC environmentalist themes to the plot, and getting rid of most of the dinosaurs.
Exactly.
Ocean's Eleven is another example of a film that can't be separated from it's era. That was the film which best captured the spirit of the early 60's in America, IMO.