[5]
Writer/director David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) welcomes us to Jurassic Neighborhood with The End of Oak Street, starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as parents who try to protect their family against a variety of dinosaurs when their entire subdivision is mysteriously transported back to prehistoric times. Prior to their adventure, McGregor and Hathaway are flirting with divorce and their two teenagers (Maisy Stella and Christian Convery) are miserable balls of angst. Predictably, they all become closer over the course of their trials and tribulations.
This is a very basic, straightforward ‘ride’ of a movie without any deeper meaning or allegory. Even though it lacks originality, it might have been a refreshing change of pace from today’s socio-politically pretentious fare — if only the characters weren’t detestable assholes. Sadly, they are all too reminiscent of the new male and female stereotypes with which Hollywood is oddly obsessed. McGregor’s character is a wishy-washy loser, an inept subordinate to Hathaway, who is afflicted with the deep, annoying need to constantly condescend, criticize, complain, or depress everyone around her. I didn’t like the characters in It Follows, either, so maybe it’s a problem with David Robert Mitchell. Or maybe it’s just another sad reflection of what we human being have become in the age of cell phones: soulless, insufferable assholes. But if characters like these are meant to be a deliberate reflection of reality, then please, give me fantasy.
This is a movie that wants to be more pulpy and violent, but Mitchell and producer J.J. Abrams keep it on a PG-13 leash. If you want dinosaurs, you’ll get plenty of them, although there aren’t any truly memorable set-piece moments. And don’t expect any explanation for why or how this neighborhood ended up in prehistoric times. J.J. Abrams is a big believer in the stupid ‘mystery box’ philosophy of screenwriting, where all you need is a great question to start a story — and absolutely no plan for how to end it.
If you just love dino-movies and need a fix (like me), The End of Oak Street might moderately satisfy you. But if you’ve seen very many Jurassic Park or Jurassic World movies, this doesn’t reinvent the subgenre or bring anything new to it. The film plays it too safe to be memorable, and the characters are too shitty to ever desire a rewatch.
With Jordan Alexa Davis, P.J. Byrne, and Emily Kuroda (The Gilmore Girls).