The Platt family are your typical 80s-era family living their lives in the suburbia of Oak Street. Matriach Denise (Anne Hathaway) wishes to escape from her responsibilities while projecting her runaway fantasies in a novel. Her husband Greg (Ewan McGregor) is doing a slew of jobs to keep the family afloat but also being helpful and optimistic to the point of annoyance on her end. Audrey (Maisy Stella) is the sole daughter who aspires for higher learning in astronomy, while Brian (Christian Convery) has his own boyhood issues to deal with.

The first 20 minutes establish the family dynamic and period setting as fast and as to-the-point as possible, as the real meat and potatoes of this Bad Robot produced-film The End of Oak Street are served up en masse.

Adventures In Dinosaur City

Things turn south when a giant light flashes in the middle of the night. Suddenly, the Platt’s entire neighbourhood is full of hungry dinosaurs, most of them the carnivorous types like your raptors and T-Rexes. It’s up to the Platts to survive and find a way out of this prehistoric mess, which is a dire version of Land of the Lost where we’re given a no-holds barred view of their neighbours meeting their grisly ends at the teeth of the dinos and other man-eating beasts.

Director David Robert Mitchell and his team spared no expense in spotlighting the new giant landscapes and bigger guests of toothy honour, but also keeps the runtime short and sweet -an hour and 39 minutes tops- in delivering the action and character building. Anne Hathaway’s Denise is the clear star of the show, as she goes from determined to even more gung-ho and determined in staying alive while attempting to confront her husband about his quirks. Ewan McGregor’s Greg works in tandem, as you’ll find out how his bright side of life outlook eventually breaks down the stone barriers of the family’s psyche.

The weakest link is Brian, as he just feels more like an obligation to the family dynamic than one who contributes to the narrative and development. In spite of this, you’re still getting a good balance of family drama and action involving dinosaurs trying to make them the day’s meal. Bits of levity do pop up in-between (like Denise and Greg taking a candid photo of boinking dinosaurs) while delivering piece after piece of human versus dinosaur chase sequences while finding for survivors and answers to their situation.

The revelation after the smoke has cleared is satisfying to say the least; it doesn’t beat you in the head with its answer but also keeps it vague like most content creator’s social media posting sentences and dumb takes for engagement bait.

Battle At Big Rock

The End of Oak Street is what happens when the director of It Follows and Under The Silver Lake takes a random story probably from Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Tales and give it a big budget glow-up. It’s simple but enthralling to watch, and it doesn’t beat around the bush and wastes your time.

Audiences will get a lot of lovely production and post work from JJ Abrams (producer) and his Bad Robot ensemble, making the scenario incredibly believable, horrifying, and funny. In short, this flick is a worthy tribute and follow-up to classic dinosaur shows akin to The Lost World, Adventures in Dinosaur City, and Prehysteria. But less goofy.

Final Score: 80/100