Rating:
Summary: Jurassic Park has ruined it for all other dinosaur movies, or so we thought. It's great to see a well-made, fun and exciting film that doesn't exist in that franchise, one that's full of heart, with a satisfying storyline.
"The End of Oak Street" is the best dinosaur movie since the 1990's. That is an indictment of how the "Jurassic Park/World" franchise has been mismanaged, but it's also genuine praise for the fun, exciting, and satisfying "The End of Oak Street".
If you've seen the trailers, you should already know the rough story. Set in the 1980's, a suburban neighbourhood is suddenly transported to millions of years ago, the time of the dinosaurs, and all hell breaks loose. One family must find a way to survive and also to return to the present. It's a simple story, but sometimes that's all you need, especially for a (North American) "summer" blockbuster.
I've learned two new words in the past few days reading the social reactions to this movie: Amblin-esque and Spielbergian. The funny thing is, upon reading those words, I immediately understood what they meant. Think "E.T.", "The Goonies", and yes, even "Gremlins" (of which this movie shares a lot in terms of carefully crafted violence - more on that later). Of course, producer J.J. Abrams has form when it comes to Amblin-esque, the fantastic "Super 8", so it's easy to see why he was attached to this project.
And yes, "The End of Oak Street" is very Amblin-esque and Spielbergian, and like "Super 8", this is a great thing. Amblin movies were full of fun and wonder, with satisfying characters and storylines - and "The End of Oak Street" does that in spades. Before I saw the movie, I had the line "like a Spielberg movie without the absent father theme" rolling around in my head as a possible line to write here to describe it, in case the social reactions I read were correct. This is actually wrong - the movie replicates this absent/distant father theme too - I half expected a de-aged Ke Huy Quan to make a cameo at one point.
I have no problems with this. Call it copying, or call it a homage - I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to replicate the fun movies of the 1980s, and it's not as easy as it sounds, as otherwise we would have more movies like "Super 8" and "The End of Oak Street". It's not just the action, or the comedy, or the wonder, or the music (Michael Giacchino is the John Williams regen), but also relatable real human stories that imbue these movies, and this movie - your heart breaks; it lifts; it virtually punches the air, and the actors do a great job bringing these stories to life (more on that later).
The movie really does push the rating (M in Australia, PG-13 in the US) to its utter limits, because you have a movie about dinosaurs eating people, and so you have to push the boundaries as much as possible - something the 80's movies I mentioned above also did with special care - without it becoming a "replace guns with walkie-talkies" PC exercise (sorry, not that kind of Spielbergian). Again, this is harder to do considering, for the most part, this is a family movie. It's one you can watch with the teenagers without too much concern, but also won't bore them out of their minds. The direction is full of small, memorable and beautiful moments, iconic cinematography that invokes scenes from movies past, and some fantastic action set-pieces. Director David Robert Mitchell ("It Follows") has done a great job here.
Anne Hathaway is having a real moment. Not only is she in every movie, but she's great in all of them, here included (and the English Premier League team that she and myself supports, Arsenal, also won the league title for the first time in 22 years this year - so it's been a great year for her/me - sorry, just had to squeeze it in here). Ewan McGregor is great as the typical 80's dad, but with a secret that's slowly destroying the family. The kids, played by Maisy Stella ("My Old Ass") and Christian Convery ("Sweet Tooth"), do an admirable job too. The other stars of the movie are the dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures (ophidiophobes, you've been warned).
I loved "The End of Oak Street". It is the perfect blockbuster movie. Sure, you probably shouldn't overthink a lot of things, and the characters do make some stupid decisions (the best Amblin films weren't immune to these things either), but you're not here for a think-piece. You're here to see people fight dinosaurs.
"The End of Oak Street" is in Australian cinemas on 13 August 2026. Australian streaming release date: TBA
