‘The End of Oak Street’ was released in cinemas last week and is a survival horror film written and directed by David Robert Mitchell. It stars Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as married couple Denise and Greg Platt who, along with their two teenage children Audrey and Brian, are transported back in time to the Jurassic Period after a freak atmospheric event swallows up their entire suburb.

At the time of writing, ‘The End of Oak Street’ has received mostly positive reviews, and box office sales are okay but not knocking it out of the park – perhaps this is understandable as both ‘Spiderman: Brand New Day’ and ‘The Odyssey’ have not yet finished their cinema runs.

I should also point out that this film is co-produced by Bad Robot, and therefore I suspect that J J Abrams would have played a major role in getting this project off the ground. Fifteen years ago, if I saw the Bad Robot brand or J J Abrams’ name attached to a movie or TV show – I would have been all over it! With a CV that included ‘Lost’, ‘Fringe’, ‘Mission: Impossible III’ and ‘Cloverfield’ to name just a few – it was understandable back in those days to get excited over anything produced by these guys. But this is definitely not the case anymore, with Abrams’ work in recent years dropping away considerably – and hitting rock bottom with the diabolical ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’

So, with David Robert Mitchell at the helm having only directed three films previously – the last of which was eight years ago – and with J J Abrams chiming in with some lens flare and ‘mystery boxes’, will ‘The End of Oak Street’ turn out to be alright?

Well, the short answer is yes.

‘The End of Oak Street’ pretty much delivers on what it has set out to achieve: – presenting a family-oriented science-fiction survival adventure, with a solid cast helped along by some crafty cinematography and a suspenseful soundtrack. The film is reasonably well-written, and the character development and background is set up neatly within the first ten minutes, which allows the story to quickly get to where it needs to go.

There are some clever visuals used in the early setup, such as an old Polaroid camera in one of the opening scenes that informs the audience of roughly when the story is set – and this is later confirmed to be nineteen-eighty-two. The timestamp is also further established by the playing of catchy pop songs from this era – which was a nice hit of nostalgia. It is also revealed that there is some marital trouble between Greg and Denise, which remains a constant undertone during the film – yet despite this added drama, the pacing remains smooth and consistent and does not get bogged down to any worrying degree. In fact, ‘The End of Oak Street’ cruises along and is fairly coherent: – giving the audience a solid story that runs its course all the way to a satisfying conclusion.

As far as the action is concerned, the dinosaurs were a constant threat and menace, and attacked anything that moved with ruthless savagery. Feathered velociraptor-type creatures and flying pterodactyls created the most havoc throughout the film, but the biggest villain was a larger spinosaurus monster that was constantly trying to eat the main characters. Not only would the Platt family have to survive against these aggressive foes, but also stay alive long enough to figure out a way back to their own time – and this is the basic premise of the movie.

To that end, ‘The End of Oak Street’ does all this very well.

However, there are a few weaker elements within that hinder what is a fairly good movie, making it fall short of becoming a top-shelf entry into the horror/adventure genre. In saying this, I accept that the film is a bit of escapism and in that sense it works very well, but there are a few scenes that spring up suddenly throughout that are nonsensical, and perhaps didn’t need to be there at all.

The first I will mention is when the neighbourhood bully literally jumps out of nowhere to settle a score with young Brian – deciding to beat him up even though dangerous dinosaurs were running rampant through the streets and tearing people to shreds. Surely the guy would have had more important things on his mind – such as staying alive? The sequence was pointless and illogical, and should have been left on the cutting room floor.

This point leads into another criticism I have of the story, where none of the neighbours even attempted to join forces in an effort to improve their chances of survival. I say this because the opening scene of the film showed the entire street getting together for a barbecue which established that everyone was close friends and got along very well. There was the initial panic with people trying to escape – which is granted – but surely there would have been a moment a day or two into this ordeal when the folks would have tried to reach out to their fellow residents.

Another moment that I found jarring was the dinosaur mating scene. No doubt this was put there to create a little levity, and might have worked as a ‘flash gag’ but it lingered on for a few minutes and showed the brontosaurus’ going at it from multiple angles. There was nothing lewd about it, for it comes across as a joke, but this did not work for me at all.

I have read other reviews that were a little more critical of ‘The End of Oak Street’, and these articles directed most of their angst toward the ‘girl-bossing.’ Look, we see this a lot these days and whilst some of the female bravado on show in this film was a little excessive, this did not bother me too much – and I’ve seen far worse in other movies. Personally, I thought that Ewan McGregor’s fake accent was more ridiculous and out-of-place than chicks kicking dinosaur butt!

I mentioned before that the film reached a satisfying conclusion, but in order to achieve this there was a ‘questionable’ time jump involved that I know many folks would describe as a plot hole. However, I did not see an issue here – and the paradox is consistent with J J Abrams and Bad Robot, as it is similar to the Spock/Kelvin time travel they used in ‘Star Trek‘ – and the co-existence of Spock Prime and the younger version of himself within the same dimension. Regardless of the theories and the science involved, I believe that some leeway can be given if it results in a happy ending and the good guys winning!

On a final note, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on other people’s observations of this film – for it had a ‘Cloverfield Universe’ feel to it, and perhaps there were a few clues within that I failed to notice. All the elements are there: – J J Abrams, time jumps and strange-looking creatures.

‘The End of Oak Street’ is a decent film that I enjoyed watching. Yes, I had a few gripes here and there, but it doesn’t take much away from the entertainment value – and I think most people who would go to watch this film would walk away reasonably satisfied.

I have not yet forgiven J J Abrams for his Star Wars debacle, and I don’t find Anne Hathaway physically intimidating and Ewan McGregor – despite working in Hollywood for decades – really needs to work on his American accent – but other than that, I’m giving this film a solid 7 out of 10!

‘The End of Oak Street’ is showing in cinemas now.

Screenshots and posters are courtesy of Bad Robot, Warner Bros Pictures and Jackson Pictures.