An Old Chestnut That Still Entertains

(090226) The End of Oak Street is a consistently strong and riveting sci-fi adventure film which is squarely aimed at older children and family audiences. It combines Stranger Things and Jurassic Park, but it does so in a much more entertaining way than the last few Jurassic Park films, such as Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) and Jurassic Park: World Rebirth (2025). The family drama elements and suburban setting come from Stranger Things, while the dinosaur action chase scenes come straight from Jurassic Park. Even with that division of narrative labor, there are still a few left turns in the storytelling, and so the film is not totally predictable.

The film was produced by J. J. Abrams, who has been massively successful and is strongly associated with current iterations of both Star Wars and Star Trek films as well as Cloverfield (2008). But his best work might be the groundbreaking TV show Lost (2004-2010). He is known for making films that are entertaining, but not particularly deep or philosophical. But this film is slightly smarter than some of his other works.

The film was directed by the promising young filmmaker, David Robert Mitchell. Besides this film, he also made the fascinating Hollywood neo-noir, Under the Silver Lake (2014). And the gripping demon horror film It Follows (2018). While The End of Oak Street is suspenseful and exciting, it is not quite as special or ambitious as these two other films.

The End of Oak Street has terrific acting, and everyone was well cast in their roles. Ewan McGregor from Moulin Rouge and Trainspotting is more than fine as the flawed dad who tries hard to do the right thing. Maisy Stella, who was in My Old Ass, plays the daughter who might be a lesbian, and Christian Convery from Cocaine Bear is the brave and plucky son. Anne Hathaway, who was in The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada, and most impressively 2008’s Rachel Getting Married, gives the best performance in the lead role of the mom.

The film is reminiscent of some of the movies that appeared in the old WGN Fraizer Thomas series, Family Classics, particularly the Ray Harryhausen film Mysterious Island (1961). Like in that film, a small group of people are stranded in a foreign place and forced to band together to fight off repeated attacks of giant monsters to survive. The difference is the setting (here suburbia), the relationships (here a nuclear family), and the creatures themselves on Oak Street, all of which here are computer-generated. Many will argue that these dino's are more convincing to a modern audience than the stop-motion animation Harryhausen was famous for in Mysterious Island. Be that as it may, it is doubtful sixty years from now it will be as warmly referenced or remembered as Mysterious Island is today.

The film’s basic premise is that a wormhole opens up in the midst of a suburb in the 1980s, and it transports the whole area back to the Mesozoic era. So, the denizens have to survive long enough until they can find a way to get back while they fight off pterosaurs, dinosaurs, and giant snakes.

The main family featured in the film had problems even before they were transported to prehistoric times. Greg and Denise Platt have been fighting for months, and it seems like their marriage has been severely damaged. Greg spends much of his time drinking, and he misses family events because he is busy doing side jobs. But his wife doesn’t know that he secretly lost his main job and now has to work weird hours to make ends meet. However, his wife also has her secrets. She is working on a novel about a desperate wife who is trying to escape her failing marriage and dead-end middle-class existence.

Unfortunately, the film has been in a losing competition with The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and with its big budget it may not turn a very big profit. The film is a modest success, at least aesthetically, and it might play well on streaming or even become a cult classic in the best of all possible worlds.