‘The End of Oak Street’ Review: Dino-Sized Chaos Makes for a Fun Popcorn Flick

Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor in The End of Oak Street (Warner Bros.)

Sometimes you just want to sit back, grab some popcorn, and watch dinosaurs cause absolute chaos. The End of Oak Street understands that assignment perfectly. In the film, a mysterious cosmic event rips Oak Street from suburbia and transports the entire neighborhood to someplace unknown. The Platt family, led by Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway, soon discovers that their survival depends on sticking together as they navigate their strange and now completely unrecognizable surroundings. From there, The End of Oak Street becomes a pure popcorn flick from beginning to end, packed with dino mayhem, creature-feature thrills, and enough surprises to keep things moving. But what caught me off guard was that underneath all the carnage, there is actually a surprisingly heartfelt story about a family trying to reconnect.

One of the things I enjoyed most about The End of Oak Street is its classic creature-feature feel. There is something refreshingly old-school about the way the movie approaches its dinosaur action. It isn't trying to reinvent the genre or become something overly complicated. It knows exactly what kind of movie it is and embraces it. Once the chaos kicks into gear, the film delivers plenty of chases, close calls, attacks, and some fun shocks along the way.

And, of course, the dinosaurs are the main attraction. The movie doesn't make you wait forever to get to the good stuff, and when the creatures show up, the film has fun with them. There is an almost throwback quality to watching ordinary people suddenly thrown into survival mode against something completely beyond their control. That's where the movie really captures that classic monster-movie energy.

What surprised me, though, was how much I actually cared about the family at the center of the story. Going into the movie, I kept wondering, “What’s the main story going to be?” Because as much fun as dinosaur mayhem can be, you still need something underneath all that chaos to make you care when these characters are put in danger. Writer/director David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) provides just enough substance to make that happen, and sometimes that’s all you need from a movie like this. It would have been easy for the film to simply use its characters as dinosaur food, but instead, Mitchell builds a semi-emotional story around a family that has grown apart and is trying to reconnect. That relationship gives the movie a little more weight than I expected and makes the danger feel more meaningful. When the characters are fighting to survive, you’re invested in more than just who will make it out alive, you’re actually rooting for this family to find their way back to one another.

That's not to say the movie suddenly becomes a heavy family drama. Far from it. The End of Oak Street knows that people are here for dinosaurs, thrills, and destruction, and it delivers plenty of all three. The emotional elements simply give the madness a stronger foundation. Now, could the script have been stronger? Sure. There are definitely a few moments that may leave audiences scratching their heads—I know I was scratching mine. Some of the film’s logic requires you to just roll with it, particularly when certain members of the family suddenly seem to have the answers when it comes to the cosmic activity happening around them, despite having little to no previous experience in anything remotely related to the field. It’s one of those situations where you have to remind yourself what kind of movie you’re watching and just go along for the ride.

Thankfully, those questionable moments never completely took me out of the experience. When a movie has dinosaurs running rampant through suburbia, I’m willing to give it a little breathing room when it comes to logic. At the end of the day, The End of Oak Street is exactly the kind of movie I hoped it would be: fast, entertaining, a little ridiculous, and completely committed to giving audiences a good time. It has some great shocks, plenty of dino mayhem, and a surprising amount of heart holding everything together.

If you're a fan of classic creature features and movies that aren't afraid to simply have fun with their premise, this one is definitely worth checking out.

Rating: 3.5/5

Disclaimer: All images used in this review are © of Marvel Studios and are included for review, commentary, and editorial purposes only.

The End of Oak Street arrives only in theaters this Friday, August 14.