'The End of Oak Street' film review: Spielberg-coded, fun dino survival flick
The sci-fi family adventure 'The End of Oak Street' (in theaters nationwide starting Aug. 14) answers the question: what if everyday folk were just dropped into a world full of dinosaurs?
In short: A mysterious cosmic event uproots an early 1980s suburban neighborhood to a jungle world infested with various prehistoric and bloodthirsty creatures. Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella and Christian Convery star.
'The End of Oak Street' is - simply put - just a fun, preposterous and exciting good old time at the movie theater. The movie, itself set in the 1980s, feels like a throwback to what lured people to the cinema: a completely absurd adventure, with real stakes, that is equal parts thrilling and funny.
It's impossible to ignore the Spielbergian vibes deeply ingrained in every part of 'Oak Street.' This honestly feels like exactly the type of movie that would have popped into theaters in the late 80s or even early 90s had CGI been up to the task.The tone and tenor of 'Oak Street' exudes pure nostalgia, but in a good, non-pandering way: 'Oak Street' recalls a time of simple, fun and compelling adventures.
Coming in at a meager 99 minutes (even shorter if you cut out the end credits time), the strength of 'Oak Street' is its pure simplicity. This is a super basic, super simple high-concept movie: what if some random section of some random American surburban sprawl was inexplicably just transported to somewhere in the distant past. That's it - that's the plot: a normal-ass suburban family fights to survive as dinosaurs invade their mundane little expanse of ramblers and modest family homes. Aside from some cryptic mentions of a space event of some sort, the script doesn't both with explaining hows or why of the anomoly - which is perfectly fine because 'Oak Street' doesn't task the family with trying to explain what happened - they must merely survive what happens.
This simplified approach does have its drawbacks. 'Oak Street' has an undercurrent of a family in quiet desperation in their disappointing life in the suburbs ... but the short runtime doesn't allow these character plot arcs to fully develop. It just leaves the audience with 'oh, this family isn't happy with their lives - now they're surrounded by dinosaurs.' The only characters with any sort of character depths are the family parents played by Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor - but they're basically reduced to 'sad housewife' and 'struggling bread winner father.' Their teen children are simply plot devices without much, if any, character definition - aside from their ability to make some incredibly stupid choices.
Perhaps this says more about the decline of CGI packed adventures of the past few decades, but 'Oak Street' is the best dinosaur movie in years and perhaps decades. The movie doesn't take itself too seriously. It's a "run from dinosaurs" movie taken down to the bare studs. Hathaway and McGregor keep the audience engaged with the omnipresent threat - and 'Oak Street' certainly leans into the dinosaur violence, as predators devour the main family's friends and neighbors. This is a good old creature feature that doesn't have airs about being a simple adventure flick - 'The End of Oak Street' celebrates silly and fun action adventures by basically becoming one - a movie about a time displaced family that itself feels like a time displaced throwback produced in the '80s yet somehow released in theaters in 2026.
Final verdict: 'Jurassic Park' had photorealistic dinos walk through a theme park so 'The End of Oak Street' could force a normal family to run away from dinosaurs through the suburbs.
Score: 3/5
'The End of Oak Street' opens in theaters nationwide Aug. 14. This survival adventure has a runtime of 99 minutes and is rated PG-13 for some strong violent content, bloody images, some strong language and suggestive material.
