The End of Oak Street - REVIEW & BREAKDOWN

I had the opportunity to see The End of Oak Street at an advance screening at my local theater. I have been to a couple advance screenings now and this was by far the most unique in that we had people in tuxedos scanning us to make sure we weren’t wearing meta-glasses. They even brought out some special monoculars to double-check we didn’t swap out with smart glasses once people were situated in their seats. But, after a 15 minute delay, and a fly moving around the projector, we were ready to roll.

My initial reaction out of theater was that it was a blast in the paleo-edutainment space that feels very much like the Amblin and Goonies era of filmmaking of the 80 and 90s that’s both nostalgic and thrilling. There were plenty of crowd-pleasing moments, some shock and awe, moments of sincerity as well as hilarity. Some cheesy moments felt like it catered to the 80s experience and prehistoric species were mostly used effectively throughout. It also does push the PG-13 rating in terms of violence, so this would be better suited for an older teenage audience and up based on your tolerance levels. The overall plot is relatively simple with some gaps, which may not be for everyone, but I think helps make it stand out as a more contained sci-fi story that I could totally have seen myself growing up as a little kid caught up in the wonder of dinosaurs, movies, and books at the time.

Now, onto the spoiler review.

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Folks who know me in person and in the social media bubbles know that I am a massive fan of the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise. With that comes some biases. But, I also fully acknowledge that fictional dinosaur and paleo-media made for the big-screen outside of that franchise has had a poor rep, which usually boils down the script. My favorite ones post-Jurassic Park containing dinosaurs are Disney’s Dinosaur (2000) and Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005).

Now, I remember hearing initial rumblings the year prior that Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor were going to star in a suburban thriller with “maybe dinosaurs”, but it was never fully confirmed until the first teaser. And come on, Princess of Genovia and General Kenobi, that’s an all-star pairing right there.

I think it wasn’t until the full trailer, that I was sold with the actual dinosaurs being shown rather than behind windows for the effect.

Now on with the movie itself. What I didn’t really get a grasp from the trailers was that this film is set in 1980s suburbia and the set and production design really sells that, because I think movies of that time and in the sci-fi genre really sell on conspiracy and early Spielbergian-Amblin vibes of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and adventures.

The film follows the Platt family, Denise (Anne Hathway), Gregg (Ewan McGregor), Audrey (Maisy Stella), Brian (Christian Convery), and their dog Starbuck. We’re introduced to them in a way that seems like they’re great to the rest of the neighborhood, but in fact are fairly dysfunctional and dealing with a failing marriage. We see that through the different and individual wants of Denise and Gregg and the secrets they hold from one another. Gregg has a drinking problem and is in between jobs, Denise is secrely trying to write a book that captures her feelings in fiction of wanting to leave. The children as a result are in limbo with all of this.

The initial catalyst of the movie is with one of the Platt’s neighbors showing Denise a strange plant growing in the yard. Denise does her research in the library and the librarian lets her know of the very old age of the species and assumes that it could be someone having a laugh with the neighbor.

The movie continues in slow burn to show how the family is struggling but barely holding it together. That slow burn I think may again not be for everyone, but I think really caters to the nature of films back then that had this sort of pacing and it’s made very clear that the circumstances they are in, you are always following at least one of the family members

Even when the swap in space-time occurs, the slow burn continues into the morning as we experience this with the Platt family sort of in real time.

I liked that we start off with a seemingly smaller dinosaur, that deceivingly first looks like a rodent digging through a trash can, but is actually the Coelophysis. Gregg and Denise in their initial search through the neighborhood after hearing screams overnight during their initial time travel leads to a tense race back to the safety of their home. During all this, Audrey and Brian spot herbivores in the woods near their house.

This also set the tone for the violence of the film because the trailers came across as very tame. But, there is definitely gore involved with these small theropods.

After the Platt family tries to make a daring escape via car, we get a spanning visual of where the neighborhood has been displaced and so they choose to board up their house with chaos ensuing outside.

That chaos also festers mentally as Gregg and Denise have a tense moment that is then revealed that Gregg is totally aware of Denise’s writing and her desire to leave. The kids hearing this and then Brian seeing Starbuck running off somewhere again, this kicks off another chain of events as Denise and Gregg look for them. Species we come across include very spiky turtles somewhat resembling the Meiolania and then a very intense face off with a Spinosaurus, which for two summers in a row, we get to have more scientifically and anatomically accurate presentations of this classic dinosaur.

We also add another member to the group with Jeannette, who comes off initially as a love interest to Brian, but is actually more in sync with Audrey.

There is a brief moment of goofiness with some sauropods mating and Audrey taking a picture of Gregg posing with them that I think in all silliness, it brings the two closer together.

Anyways, after everyone is reunited, we get our major sequence with the Allosaurus, which was an insane sequence from start to finish. First, the Allosaurus moves stalkingly behind our protagonists with padded footing and feels almost comical in a way. Both Gregg and Denise show off their mightiness here in trying to fend off the Allosaurus, but in a moment of cheer when Gregg (in Obi-Wan style) wacks the Allosaurus down and goes to retrieve Denise, it wakes up and rips Gregg’s leg off and everyone’s cheers were cut short. Then came the defining chomp to end Gregg’s screams.

From here, you see Anne Hathaway really acting her heart out showing the levels of grief she’s going through and now realizing she has to be the lone leader to the three kids.

Even with trying to recover from their grief as they head home, we get our next thrilling action sequence with a very large and long serpent. I couldn’t tell you if it’s a Titanoboa or something else because some of these species did feel out of place in their time periods.

Our final bought of prehistoric mayhem involves Tropeognathus-looking pterosaurus and quadruped lizards (think oversized spiky komodo dragons) as our protagonists find a way back with a wormhole connecting to the present just outside the roof of the librarian’s house, similar to the one Gregg and Denise found earlier in the movie that had then disappeared.

In the midst of the chaos, Starbuck returns and saves the day and our protagonists make it back to the present 1980s. And to add an extra glimmer of hope, they realize the time is early enough for Denise to call Gregg for one of his part time struggle side jobs as a pizza delivery guy. In reunion, they see the neighborhood from a distance being swapped with dinosaurs now in their present day location.

The ending was a bit confusing and maybe I need another watch, but Denise found a way to contact people from their neighborhood to get out before the space-time swap and we see folks who were killed or eaten now back and noted as survivors.

We also see Denise having written a book titled “The End of Oak Street”.

With that, it’s a happy ending after several years, the family is stronger and Audrey and Jeannette are shown together in a nice return to normalcy of the 80s.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed The End of Oak Street. I knew I was going to see it at some point, but I kept my expectations pretty low. And given the whole AI debacle in the marketing, I wanted to keep those expectations even lower in case. But, the movie itself clearly had a lot attention to detail that one would hope is made by human artists make a relatively unique concept work.

Giacchino’s score feels very similar in tone to his work on the World films and David Robert Mitchell genuinely impressed me with his capturing of the Amblin vibe. ILM did a fine job as well with some familliar models and fresh takes.

My main downsides with the film are more in the surface level explanation of the species of dinosaurs as someone who doesn’t know too much, but enough to tell differences in species based on basic anatomy from what we’ve seen paleo-media in movies/shows or documentaries.

Echoing others, the movie gives off vibes of Goonies, Stranger Things, Jumanji, and many other classics. I feel like in many ways it doesn’t need a sequel.

But, if a sequel were to be made, I could see a “Return to Oak Street” where it takes elements of Stranger Things and Escape to Witch Mountain. From there, I could see government powers that be, using Denise’s expertise from her writing to exploit the energy shifts from the wormhole for some sort of nefarious gain. As a result, it would be up to at least some of our protagonists to return, to put an end to all of the chaos.

To conclude, as a life-long fan of the Jurassic franchise and a fan of the ocassional paleo-media, this is a home-run in the genre that is accompanied with well-acted performances in a unique setting. The hope, I think is, that more creatives should be given the opportunities to tell engaging and original stories with these awesome prehistoric forces of nature and share on the big screen for all to enjoy, whether within the confines of a major tentpole franchise or starting a new one altogether.

Here were some pics from the advance screening and the merch we were able to pick up including a poster, first aid kit (to jokingly survive the trip to Oak Street), and a putty-like cube resembling the wormhole.