The End of Oak Street
Writer/Director: David Robert Mitchell
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery
The End of Oak Street is one of those films that feels like it should've been introduced by Rod Serling. That's because its premise—which finds an entire 1980s neighborhood being transported back to prehistoric times via an unstable wormhole—feels very much like something you'd have watched on an old episode of The Twilight Zone.
Picture, if you will, the Platt family. Aspiring novelist Denise (Anne Hathaway) lives in the suburbs with her husband, Greg (Ewan McGregor), daughter Audrey (Maisy Stella), son Brian (Christian Convery), and their dog, Starbuck. The couple's marriage is on the rocks, with Denise contemplating divorce and Greg having recently lost his job. Then, one night during a thunderstorm, Oak Street is engulfed in a brilliant white light that sends the entire neighborhood hurtling through time, plunking its residents smack in the middle of a primordial landscape millions of years in the past.
Soon, dinosaurs emerge and begin making meals out of Oak Street's inhabitants. Desperate to get home, the Platts search for a way back to 1982. Along the way, they're forced to tangle with deadly dromaeosaurs, terrifying pteranodons, and one particularly bad-tempered allosaurus that looks quite literally like it'd be better off displayed in a museum. Don't get me wrong—the special effects are strong, but this poor guy looks like he's spent the last hundred million years being put through the absolute wringer!
Will the Platts make it home? What about Denise and Greg's marriage? And what the heck is Mel's (P. J. Byrne) problem? Yeah, like I'm gonna tell you! Go and see the movie!
The End of Oak Street is some of the most fun I've had at the movies this summer—a pulpy popcorn pic serving up creature feature thrills and plenty of bite. The main cast puts on quite the show, wholly committed to selling the illusion of a struggling, Amblin-esque family trying desperately to come together and survive against a barrage of prehistoric beasts. This is especially true of Anne Hathaway (in her fourth role of the year), whose performance is a cut above the rest and easily rivals even the scariest of saurians populating the movie.
That said, Jurassic Park this is not! Like I mentioned, the dinosaurs look good. There are also jokes—although most of them fall flat—and some fun action sequences that are sure to get your blood pumping. But The End of Oak Street still lacks the fit and finish of Spielberg's original blockbuster—and all of its subsequent sequels, if I'm being honest.
Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. While this genre is probably destined to forever be dominated by Universal's billion-dollar dino franchise (I'm not complaining), David Robert Mitchell's flick sets itself apart with a scrappy story of survival that revels in the unique to offer audiences something fresh, new, and blissfully free of genetic tampering.
A bold move, to be sure, but you know what? It totally works!
No, it's not perfect. There are some dreadful decisions made, a creature that feels oddly out of place, and one character who spends half the film being pretty much one of the most unlikable human beings in cinematic history—my family PTSD certainly didn't help the situation—before displaying any kind of redeeming qualities.
But when all is said and done, The End of Oak Street remains a rip-roaring roller-coaster ride that sends summer off in spectacular fashion. Oh, and not to worry: nothing bad happens to the dog.
