The End of Oak Street

**A Great Premise That Never Quite Lives Up to Its Potential** The End of Oak Street has one of those premises that immediately sells you on the movie: an ordinary suburban neighborhood suddenly finds itself surrounded by prehistoric wilderness and dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the movie itself never becomes quite as interesting as that setup. There’s definitely fun to be had here. The dinosaur sequences are entertaining, Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are good, and the movie moves along quickly enough that it never really becomes boring. I also appreciated that it feels more like an old-fashioned adventure movie than another attempt to build a giant franchise. The problem is that it spends a surprising amount of time on fairly generic family drama when there’s a much more interesting story happening outside the house. The characters never become compelling enough to justify how much attention is given to their problems, and some of the emotional moments feel forced rather than earned. It also wears its Spielberg influences very heavily on its sleeve. There’s nothing wrong with trying to capture that 1980s Amblin feeling, but at times it feels less inspired by those movies than like it’s deliberately trying to recreate them. Still, dinosaurs attacking suburbia is a pretty difficult concept to make completely boring, and there are enough good sequences here to make it worth watching. I just wish the movie had embraced the weirdness of its premise a little more. **6/10**

Dread creeps, chaos strikes / Jurassic meets Gremlins' smile / Anne Hathaway owns it #filmreviewhaiku

Ok, so the whole premiss is fairly flawed. The idea that dinosaurs could roam the streets of an American town without the military - normally first on the scene if you drop your ice cream - taking centre stage with their missiles, tanks and helicopters is even more far-fetched than the idea that velociraptors and Tyrannosaurs might be gobbling up suburban citizens. But it's true! After some some very loud and unexplained noises and some brightly flashing lights, the "Platt" family awaken to find their dog missing. Perhaps "Starbuck" has gone for a coffee? Son "Brian" (Christian Convery) is very concerned but soon that's the least of his problems as with dad "Greg" (Ewan McGregor), mum "Denise" (Anne Hathaway) and sister "Audrey" (Maisy Stella) they find themselves holed up in a home with some seriously noisy and peckish neighbours. How can they possibly fight back with - literally - only a bow and arrow and a baseball bat? What now ensues is just good fun, and what's more all of the cast look like they are enjoying this daft Jurassic romp with shades of "Mysterious Island" (1961) thrown in for good measure. It's end-to-end stuff with plenty going on and although I could have done without some of the obligatory family dysfunction that always seems neccessary these days, I found this to be a great deal better than I was expecting and Hathaway proved to be something of an entertaining revelation.

Check out my full review @ https://movieswetextedabout.com/the-end-of-oak-street-movie-review-a-stylish-amblin-style-spectacle-undone-by-tonal-indecision/ Rating: B- THE END OF OAK STREET is a well-built summer blockbuster whose biggest obstacle is its own indecision about what it wants to be. The dinosaur spectacle is thrilling, Anne Hathaway anchors it with real gravity, Michael Giacchino’s score elevates nearly every set piece, and the Amblin-inspired craft on display is a genuine pleasure to watch unfold — but the moment the film tries to layer real emotional stakes onto a story built for popcorn thrills, the seams show, and they never fully close back up. Setting the right tone is a promise to the audience about how much to feel, and breaking that promise even once can undo a lot of goodwill a movie has otherwise earned.