Title: The End of Oak Street
First Non-Festival Release: August 12, 2026 (Theatrical Release)
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Writer: David Robert Mitchell
Runtime: 99 Minutes
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella
Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here
Just like every other American family, the Platts are enjoying their summer the way anyone would. Between summer cookouts and pizza nights at home, the family is occupied with their ordinary lives when they wake up to their reality changed. After Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor) explore their eerily quiet neighborhood while Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery) stay home, they discover that somehow they and the rest of their community have been transported millions of years back in time overnight. What’s worse is that all the creatures from the era are their new neighbors, and they aren’t too pleased with the changes. The Platts must use their limited knowledge and their love for each other to survive long enough to escape.
The End of Oak Street offers up inoffensive, serviceable dino action horror.
Leaning on nostalgia and breathless pacing from the beginning, The End of Oak Street takes cues from more blockbuster friendly franchises to frame its multi-genre stuffed story. To make more room for brainless dinosaur action sequences, the plot is boiled down to its most essential parts. Each family member is given their own journey to take, complete with an appropriate B-plot that doesn’t add much to the characters or the story. The resolutions are painless, offering little in the way of growth or catharsis but certainly fills up time.
The lack of direction leads the story to aimlessly flounder in the prehistoric fauna before stumbling into a workable, albeit convenient, solution. Once the third act shock wears off, The End of Oak Street struggles to solve its chronic storytelling problem after kneecapping the delicate comedic tone it spends the first two thirds developing. Creatures pop in and out of the narrative without making much of a mark despite the relative ease at which they dispatch the desperate family’s neighbors. The scares become so frequent, it gets easy to predict exactly when the crew will escape without a second to spare. Instead, The End of Oak Street hopes that its plentiful number of dinosaur altercations can alleviate the duller moments of the film.
It’s moderately successful despite the sequences leaving audiences wanting more. The dinosaurs look beautiful for today’s technology, even if they cannot rid themselves of the glossy shine made apparent from the visual effects process. Their behavior and actions cause more concern. Lacking urgency, many of the dinosaurs, and other prehistoric creatures, do not behave the way a predator would. The Platts conveniently escape from countless predicaments solely because the dinosaurs patiently wait for their next move. While the dinosaurs have the appropriate feathers and don’t roar in the ways their predecessors were criticized for, the beasties just don’t have the necessary bite. The few well-timed scenes pale in comparison to the glut of tension-less confrontations peppered throughout the film.
The End of Oak Street may hit every cursory mark of a summer blockbuster, but it fails to make any of the moments feel important enough to care any further.
It’s clear that these details don’t matter because despite all of this The End of Oak Street displays an obvious charm that makes it hard to hate. Anne Hathaway’s all-in performance of Denise channels the rage many frustrated wives feel at the hands of their clueless husbands while never wavering from her dedication to doing what’s right. Not only by her family but by others. Denise’s depiction, and subsequent arc, may be a lasting relic of a bygone era’s stock character but it still works for the insanity of the premise behind The End of Oak Street. Hathaway isn’t the only draw. The rest of the cast delivers on charm, which is easy when they are written to be relatable canvasses for the audience to project their own fears onto if they were to themselves in this situation, especially Ewan McGregor’s character. In the end, the cast carries The End of Oak Street over the finish line.
There isn’t much substance behind the family dino thriller, but The End of Oak Street offers enough action to earn back any goodwill from its fun premise. Its charming cast and strong production values help bring the more imaginative parts of its story to life. The maximalism only goes so far, as the film rarely lands a solid scare, getting lost alongside any established stakes, nor maintains any emotional resonance. Thoroughly middling but easily watchable, The End of Oak Street offers enough for general audiences but fails to dive into what makes its premise or characters so initially intriguing.
Overall Score? 6/10
