Film Review: THE END OF OAK STREET (2026): A Splendidly Conceived Dinosaur Movie with a Solid Cast

The End of Oak Street Review

The End of Oak Street (2026) Film Review, a movie written and directed by David Robert Mitchell and starring Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery, Jordan Alexa Davis, P.J. Byrne, Hudson Meek, Emily Kuroda, Simms May, Grayson Thorne Kilpatrick, Pilot Bunch, Walker Russell, Michael-Christian Moore, David Alexander Kaplan and Denitra Isler.

Filmmaker David Robert Mitchell’s terrific new dinosaur movie, The End of Oak Street, is like a blast from the past, taking audiences into the 1980’s, around the time of Back to the Future, but at least several years before Jurassic Park came out. Those are two films the movie fuses together in a very entertaining fashion, creating the most flat-out enjoyable blockbuster popcorn movie of the summer.

Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are featured in The End of Oak Street. McGregor plays a dad, Greg Platt, who wouldn’t mind delivering pizzas around his picturesque neighborhood to keep his family happy. Hathaway is Denise Platt, a mother who would, without a doubt, lay her life on the line to save her kids: Audrey (Maisy Stella of My Old Ass) and Brian (Christian Convery) Platt. Let it be said, the movie starts off a bit ordinary with a typical American family’s interactions before it takes off and becomes the definitive dinosaur film of the decade.

There is a family dog named Starbuck who all but steals the show, especially when it comes to Starbuck saving a key character late in the film by going after a winged predator who threatens his family’s life.

Though the plot of The End of Oak Street is extremely minimalist, the visual effects are not. These dinosaurs who appear in suburbia are the real deal with menacing, sharp fangs and they truly pose a formidable threat to those who stand in the way of them taking over the world.

There are time travel elements in the new movie which are excellently integrated into the picture. The movie also has peppered in tunes from the 1980’s such as “Valerie” by Steve Winwood which is sung along with in a key moment by the main young female character in the movie. That is one of the most superbly rendered moments in the film as the young actress at hand proves that she’s truly frightened and is using the upbeat song to console herself.

Anne Hathaway kicks ass in the movie in the scenes in which she must protect her family. Take a slimy white, oversized snake which is slithering through the house. Hathaway’s character stabs it to kingdom come in one of the best scenes in the whole entire movie. That dinosaur snake is fantastic. There’s even a scene of intimacy among dinosaurs which is very cleverly thrown in.

There’s not much to say that would make this movie not appeal to general audiences. Ewan McGregor has got the quintessential kind-hearted dad thing down pat. Another notable performance is another young actress on board, Jordan Alexa Davis, as the family friend, Jeannette. Davis is personable and, alongside the other young performers, keeps us rooting for the characters in the movie to beat those wickedly frightening dinosaurs.

Those dinosaurs are nothing to sneeze at in terms of how well they come across on-screen. These are expertly crafted monsters who are able to tear apart a house or gobble people up -on a moment’s notice. It’s quite easy to see these dinosaurs as much scarier than the ones in the Jurassic Park movies. They are much scarier and, thus, more formidable opponents than we’re used to seeing on-screen in creature features.

The End of Oak Street is a winner through and through. Emily Kuroda’s older character, Mrs. Valcourt, stays in her bedroom with a shotgun, looking to catch the monsters at their most vulnerable. She comes through to save some of our heroes at a pivotal point in the movie and Kuroda turns out to be an efficient and effective character actress in this picture despite minimal screen time.

You’ll just go with this movie’s wild premise which could be said to be possibly inspired by the Jurassic Park films, but this movie is so much more accessible than any of the films in that franchise. There is a human touch to the characters that reflect upon the director’s bond with his own dad. It’s a major accomplishment to see such an exciting action picture that poses a question like this movie does: What would you do if you were the last people alive and found out that you could have the power to turn back time? Those are ultimately the Back to the Future vibes and elements in the movie that are so well used here.

Anne Hathaway is much stronger here than one would expect from the film’s initial premise. She is given the opportunity to add dramatic flair to her character and the audience will enjoy the results. The End of Oak Street delivers and fires on all cylinders. One great sequence has the dinosaurs pecking at dead bodies in the streets. One of them is an ice cream truck victim. I wonder if the filmmakers had any desire to put that in being that the abysmal Ice Cream Man movie recently came out and would be playing at the theaters at the same time as this one.

Either way, The End of Oak Street proves that when there’s a great premise at the filmmakers’ disposal, it can defy all possible negativities and help the picture become one of the major movie events of the summer. This film is surely one of them and must be seen.

Rating: 9/10

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