The End of Oak Street

The End of Oak Street is a surprisingly effective yet preposterous creature feature with a plot full of ludicrous machinations, yet we have a lot of fun trying to figure out whether the science holds up to any kind of credibility.

This is one of those movies that does a very good job of making implausible weirdness look authentic, and yet it’s silly and thrilling when it needs to be. It’s a lot of stuff to buy at once, but its cast sells it.

Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor star as Denise and Greg Platt, a married couple living in a suburban neighborhood in 1982. Their marriage is rocky and turbulent as Greg picks up extra work as a pizza delivery guy while Denise tries to be a novelist. Maisy Stella and Christian Convery are their two children.

Their whole world turns upside down as a cosmic event shifts the entire neighborhood into a prehistoric landscape and dinosaurs run amok and terrorize the citizens. No, this is not another Jurassic World. It is much more entertaining.

The family spends most of the movie’s runtime running from dinosaurs that want to eat them for dinner while simultaneously trying to figure out how the neighborhood evolved, or de-evolved. The daughter has her own theories that work well in the screenplay but may be harder to explain.

The movie does well with its use of characters and atmosphere. It lets these characters be real people rather than a clothesline for the special effects sequences. Plus, it doesn’t go over the top with its gore factor. The movie is PG-13, but it does contain one scene that borders on R territory.

The End of Oak Street doesn’t have any real surprises, but it does contain some slick moments when the family attempts to either evade or kill the dinosaurs despite having no real survival skills.

It plays like a Spielberg-esque adventure, with the same spirit and energy as some of his best offerings. Plus, once the world’s logic is clarified, the explanation may not be enough to swallow wholeheartedly, but perhaps a movie like this shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

Hathaway and McGregor do terrific work as parents who basically become superheroes by circumstance, but they’re not always sure their plans will save the day. Still, their faith in the material is believable enough to sustain the movie until the very end.

The End of Oak Street doesn’t try to be anything other than late-summer entertainment that is goofy and serviceable, and while the result isn’t always Dino-mite, it’s serviceable enough that it doesn’t deserve extinction either.

Grade: A-

(Rated PG-13 for some strong violent content, bloody images, some strong language, and suggestive material.)

Reviewer’s Note: I saw this movie at Glynn Place Cinemas in Brunswick.