The End of Oak Street (2026)
Dinos running rampant in 1980's suburbia?
You bet Jurassic they are......
Let's put our hands together (at least for a few seconds) for writer-director David Robert Mitchell. He took on the harder-than-it-looks task of crafting a genuine imitation Spielberg movie from Spielberg's own 1980's Golden Age...(of "E.T.", "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and his producer status on "Poltergeist", "The Goonies" and "Gremlins".)
Not really an easy task to pull off, combining the master director's magical mixture of comedy, fantasy, action, heart-tugging moments and cheer-inducing finales.
Back in 2011, writer-director J.J.Abrams took a fairly good crack at it in "Super 8", about suburban kid filmmakers encountering as escaped alien monster on the loose. Lots of fun, loaded up with Spielbergian vibes to the max. And Abrams is still back at it, functioning here as 'Oak Street's executive producer.
And you'd be sorely mistaken if you think crafting a Spielberg homage is easy......this year, with the severely disappointing "Disclosure Day", even Spielberg himself couldn't quite nail making a traditional Spielbergian, aliens-on-the-loose rip-off of his own classic films.
Again, we're back in sunny, happy suburbia, where Alice and Greg Platt (Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor) enjoy a block party-carnival with their teen and tween kids Audrey and Brian (Maisy Stella, Christian Convery).
Trouble in paradise, though........Having lost his job, Greg's reduced to delivering pizzas. Alice secretly pounds away at a novel about a woman aching to walk out of her marriage. Hmmm....this does not bode well....
Know what else doesn't bode well? The neighborhood warped into bordering a prehistoric jungle, with all manner of CGI'd dinosaurs running across the manicured lawns to stalk and munch on the neighbors like an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Wooo hooo! From this point on, the film puts pedal to the metal as Hathaway, McGregor and the kids desperately fight for their survival amid all the stompin', chompin' reptiles.
Crowd pleasing, showstopping scenes abound.....you'll cringe and wince as the family argues about their next move, unaware that a charging, hungry T-Rex currently lopes across the lawn right behind them. And let's hear it for that monstrous white snake, oozing its way through all three floors of the family's house, which they somehow manage to ignore (like the T-Rex) until they're almost snake-snacks.
Writer-director Mitchell puts on a true popcorn gobbling, soda slurping good time here. So good, in fact, you'll end more than willing to swallow the goofball scientific explanation for the dinos return and the extra feel good ending that could only happen in the Magic Surburbs of Spielgergia.
And it's ironically sad, in a way, that composer Michael Giacchino slathers the film with a loud, propulsive rip-roarin' imitation John Williams score.....a feat that maestro Williams himself could barely accomplish, finding little to inspire him when composing for his long time collaborator's muddled "Disclosure Day".
But as for "Oak Street", for a pure, shamelessly entertaining thrill ride (and one that doesn't burden itself with a bloated running time like some other current blockbusters) this deliriously dino-mighty treat spreads out a fine end-summer movie picnic. (Keep the lid on the mayonnaise jar when the T Rex is around......)
4 stars (****).
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