Here are some ways critics have described The End of Oak Street in their reviews: “high-end trash”, “mindlessly entertaining in a big-dumb-fun kind of way”, a “shamelessly fun thriller”, “preposterous, but it’s also unrespectable fun”, and “If you approach this admittedly wildly entertaining ride for what it is, a Twilight Zone on steroids, you will be in the fun zone.” All of that is true and that is exactly what makes The End of Oak Street the perfect end of summer movie. In those weird, hot limbo days with the existential dread of fall approaching, this movie gives you the opportunity to turn off your brain and have some stupid fun. I’m just sorry I’m so late in posting this that we’re already kind of into fall. But there’s never really a bad time to turn off your brain and have some stupid fun!

The End of Oak Street comes from writer-director David Robert Mitchell and producer J.J. Abrams. I wasn’t previously familiar with David Robert Mitchell’s work but I could definitely feel the J.J. Abrams touch here. The movie opens on a 1982 summer block party in the suburban town of Flowervale, Michigan. The Platt family, Denise and Greg (Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor) and their two teenagers, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery) (oh, and I can’t forget their dog, Starbuck), are living stereotypical suburban lives. Until one night, a crazy storm with mysterious flashes of light somehow transports their neighborhood back to prehistoric times, complete with all the flora, fauna, and beasts from the era. The family has to figure out how to get back to their present and survive in the meantime. Something I really liked about the movie, especially coming off of One Night Only, is that it doesn’t harp too much on the premise. With any sci-fi, there has to be some suspension of disbelief and Oak Street benefits from not getting weighed down by trying to figure out or explain how or why this happened. We don’t really need to know. All that matters for the sake of this movie is that this is the situation they’re in, now how are they going to get out of it?

Even more interesting than the plot of this movie is the tone. On the one hand, it has really strong Amblin vibes. Much of the time it doesn’t just feel like a movie set in the 80s, but rather a movie actually made in the 80s. The homage to Spielberg (the king of the summer blockbuster) comes through elements of the story and the aesthetic, but with slight tweaks. Obviously the main point of comparison is Jurassic Park, the uncontested most famous dinosaur movie (crucially Oak Street is set before Jurassic Park came out because I was wondering how that would’ve affected the story). Variety observed that Oak Street could fit right in as a continuation of the Jurassic franchise, particularly in the direction it’s gone in, noting, “a tranquil middle-class neighborhood gets attacked by dinosaurs, so it wouldn’t be inaccurate to call the film Jurassic World: Suburban Apocalypse. There have been seven Jurassic movies, but to some of us it feels like there have been 27, and The End of Oak Street might as well be the 28th.” But where the Jurassic films, particularly the original, have the awe and wonder of seeing these creatures in real life, Oak Street is all terror. There’s nothing awesome about fearing for your life and the characters in Oak Street barely get a moment of reprieve from that. The movie also has the very Spielberg-coded story device of “this is a movie about dinosaurs, but really it’s about my parents divorce”. Oak Street’s take on it, however, is to focus more on the perspective of the parents, Anne Hathaway’s mom character in particular, than on the perspective of the children. Michael Giacchino’s playful and sentimental score also evokes an Amblin movie. 

The most decidedly not Spielberg aspect of the movie? The moments where the tone shifts from earnest nostalgia to silly and campy. It goes from homage to near parody. Oak Street is classified as a “sci-fi survival thriller”, but while it definitely feels that way for the characters inside the world and there are a few jump scares, the movie mostly plays as a comedy. Critics are mixed on whether some of the comedy was intentional or not, but something about the experience of watching it makes you laugh rather than scream when people are killed and eaten by dinosaurs. That sounds kind of sadistic but that’s just the reaction it evokes for reasons I’m not even totally sure of. Overall, it’s just not that serious. It’s an incredibly impressive mix of humor, action, scares, and sentimentality that keeps you on your toes. 

The End of Oak Street is hard to describe. You really just need to experience it for yourself. It’s a B-movie elevated by A-list actors, as Deadline characterized it. Ewan McGregor was super funny, although struggling with the American accent a bit, and Anne Hathaway was great as a dual housewife/action hero (and now I’m 4/4 so far this year on seeing Anne Hathaway movies in theaters… and yes I will be going 5/5!). TIME called the movie “the best dinosaur movie since Jurassic Park”. To be honest, that’s not such a high bar to cross. It pretty easily blows the Jurassic sequels out of the water. But shouldn’t it be way easier to make an entertaining dinosaur movie? Dinosaurs are an insane concept. I guess they’re deceptively difficult to get right on film. Sorry again for getting this out so late but Oak Street was unbelievably fun to see with an audience who was going wild, laughing and gasping the entire time. If you watch it at home (which you should), don’t watch alone. I guarantee it will be more enjoyable with a group to react with.

2026 Count: 63 movies, 41 seasons of television, 1 special