Dinosaurs rank high in a top five coolest things ever list. So, it is confusing as to how, Jurassic Park, the franchise that amazed audiences with big screen dinosaurs has now made audiences apathetic towards monsters who are far above us on the food chain. With the right budget and story, dinosaur movies should get an easy pass, but sadly that’s just not how it is.
The End of Oak Street focuses on the Platt family during a very strange week in 1982. Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor) with their two kids are living in Spielberg’s version of a perfect 1980s suburb. After some strange unexplainable occurrences, the family wakes up to a neighborhood with no power, water, or the safety they’ve always counted on. Their neighborhood has been sent back to prehistoric times. The family and their neighbors soon find themselves running for their lives as they are now prey.
As far as the family goes, they are nailed down to one-dimensional character types. Denise wears the pants in the family and is not happy with her typical suburban life. Greg is an insecure father who just wants everyone to get along. Their daughter is closeted and gets annoyed with her brother. The son is a troublemaker who has a toy bow and arrow. While there isn’t time for much growth in a run-for-your-life monster movie, they all lean into their written type in every scene and not much else.
I was so excited to see what David Robert Mitchell (It Follows, Under the Silver Lake) could do with this kind of idea. He has always been quite good at creating an environment where there is creeping fear or a looming threat. And in this movie, he still manages that for the most part. There are a few scenes (although ridiculous) where sneaky giant dinosaurs or snakes creep up on our main characters and make the threat feel real.
While watching the movie, I had a vague memory of some old trading cards called Dinosaurs Attack (spun off of the old Mars Attacks cards). The cards showed dinosaurs in our modern world, hanging out in backyards and ripping school buses in half. Oak Street provides a lot of fun that feels referential to those classic genre collectibles. There are several creative shots of these creatures in backyard swimming pools, or sneaking up the stairs.
For a family movie, Oak Street takes some risks. It is really violent. Once the dinosaurs take to the streets, there are very few scenes where a random neighbor isn’t being pursued and devoured. This movie makes dinosaurs feel like the threat that the Jurassic series hasn’t for a very long time. Though on the note of not being totally family friendly, there’s an awkward not-so-private moment for two brontosauruses that someone in the writing room must have felt was hilarious.
For better and worse, the movie is a product of JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot production company. It very much wants to be an Amblin movie and that feels like the only reason it was set in 1982. Nostalgia for simpler times is great, right? Dinosaurs are awesome, right? The issue is that the throwback era and vibes feel synthetic. Let’s be real, not even Spielberg himself could manufacture that sense of nostalgia in Disclosure Day.
Speaking of Disclosure Day, the ending of each movie essentially destroys the plot that came before it. What was a fun dinosaurs attack series of events, gets a strong sci-fi ending that attempts to explain the movie, but just feels like a deus ex machina moment. The way they tie the bow on this movie felt so tacky and bogged down some real fun surprises that came before.
It’s hard to deny that The End of Oak Street feels like a summer blockbuster. It runs super quick at 1 hour 39 minutes, It’s a survival movie focusing on a family, and it has a decent budget for effects. Even with the paper-thin characters and story, I was in for the ride for the majority of the movie. It’s hard to not be excited about what prehistoric monster that could be hunting these unprepared characters. Had they stuck the landing, it would be an easy recommendation, but over time will quickly go extinct in my brain. C
Comments are closed.