The End of Oak Street brings back dinosaurs to the big screen in a fun mystery and an awesome cast. Photo: Warner Bros Pictures.
Jurassic Park set a standard for dinosaur blockbusters that hasn’t been topped since its release 33 years ago.
For some reason or another, dinosaur movies struggle to deliver the fantasy and awe that come with the creatures they depict, so much so that even sequels in the Jurassic Park franchise have tried and failed to live up to that first film.
So it gives me great pleasure to report that The End of Oak Street is the best movie to feature the prehistoric beasts since the 1993 classic.
The End of Oak Street follows the Platt Family in the early 1980s. Greg (Ewan McGregor) and Denise (Anne Hathaway) deal with the challenges that come with being parents to their teenagers Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery).
On what appears to be another mundane morning, the entirety of Oak Street, the strip the Platt family lives on, is mysteriously transported through time and space to a place where dinosaurs still roam.
Devastation reigns as the dinosaurs destroy everything and everyone on the street, leaving the Platt family (and their cattle dog) trying to survive while also discovering where they are and how it happened.
The End of Oak Street is a movie the world needed.
Off the back of serious epic dramas like The Odyssey and the Marvel juggernaut that is Spider-Man, the cinema needed a real easy-going palate cleanser that is fun to watch but not three hours long.
We get both of those things here. An original story with eye candy, all while being under two hours long.
While not necessarily a family movie, it is one that will no doubt please crowds. When making a movie like this, there are a couple of must-haves: make it interesting and make it visually fun.
The premise ticks the first box.
For a majority of the runtime, there is little to no insight into what has actually happened.
It means that, as the audience, you are immersed in the world before you start to ask questions about it. Instead of asking how an entire street has been teleported and why it is happening, you are blown away by the fact that a T-Rex is snatching people up and eating them.
It goes for novelty over answers, and that’s what a movie about dinosaurs needs!
Second, it looks fantastic. An $80 million budget is nothing to sneeze at, but it is well below some of the ballooned costs of other mid-year blockbusters. It makes it all the more impressive that it looks better than most of those other films.
To put it into perspective, Jurassic World Rebirth, which was released last year, cost an estimated $180-225 million and looks about on par with what’s on show here.
The cast also completely understood what they were there to film.
McGregor is always great in everything he does, while Anne Hathaway continues her fantastic 2026 with her fourth film of the year, and another’s on the way.
By no means are they winning any awards, but they were having as much fun acting as I was watching, which is only a good thing.
The End of Oak Street won’t be crushing box office records, especially with other films performing the way that they are, but it does have the potential of being a classic that families will rewatch for years to come.
The End of Oak Street is currently showing in cinemas across the country.
