The End of Oak Street - Movie Review

The Movie: The End of Oak Street

The Director: David Robert Mitchell

The Cast: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery

The Story: The Platt family bands together to navigate their new surroundings after a cosmic event transports their suburban neighborhood to someplace unknown.

The Rating: 8 / 10

The Review:

This is one of those movies that I probably liked more than I should have. It's just a really fun theater experience, partly because the movie knows not to take itself so serious like some of these types of movies tend to do. Director David Robert Mitchell really understood the assignment of creating a 1980's suburban neighborhood suddenly filled with dinosaurs around every corner and, with this being a Bad Robot production, the whole thing has plenty of early Spielberg type DNA built into it.

The movie is scary, it's intense, it's action packed, and I think it's the dinosaur movie that we've all been wanting to see for a long time. I love how the movie is filled with so many different types of dinosaurs around every corner, each of which presents its own unique type of danger. Some are extremely fast, others can fly, and some are super stealthy like you never know they're about to attack until it's too late. For the most part the CGI and other effects work is pretty well done although there are several spots where the dinos looked pasted into the scene but whatever. Any flaws were minor and didn't really affect the storytelling at all.

A lot of people have been wondering if this movie is part of J.J. Abram's Cloverfield Universe, or Cloververse, and, while there's no blatantly obvious connections, I think it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to piece a few things together to make it work. The fun of these movies is that we're never quite sure how or why they connect, they just kind of do. Maybe some day there will be a big payoff and, if not, I think that's okay too.

These days it's hard not to see Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan Kenobi although he does a great job in this movie playing a very flawed husband who loves his family and just wants to make sure they are always safe. Anne Hathaway is also very good in her role and I like how both characters are far from perfect which mostly puts them at odds with each other through the first half of the movie. The relationship that they have is surprisingly authentic and emotional for a movie like this and the eventual payoff is so rewarding because of everything they go through to get there.

So yeah, if you're willing to look past a few flaws, none of them were deal breakers for me, and are just willing to kick back and have a fun time, then I highly recommend this movie. The vibes are fun, the dino action doesn't get too gory, and I feel like it's safe and entertaining enough for kids of all ages. We also get some teen drama and kid-sized bullying issues that are touched on aside from the family dynamics, so you get a little something for everyone here to go along with all the running and screaming and chomping and stomping.

Thank you for reading this review, I hope you enjoy the movie as much as I did. Every movie has a time and place for it to exist and this one seemed like a perfect fit within this year's roster of summer movies.