Although they had gone extinct long before humans walked the earth, dinosaurs have become a constant in our media. From reimagining the family sitcom with The Flinstones, to a critique of the dangerous ambitions of man in Jurassic Park, dinosaurs have long operated as a malleable force to represent the innate chaos in introducing two different species from wildly different ecosystems. The End of Oak Street, like The Flintstones, imagines a life intertwined with dinosaurs but having this event spurred upon by a cosmic storm uprooting family life not too dissimilar to the premise of a Twilight Zone episode.

Set in the 1980s, The End of Oak Street is centred around a family that is quietly eroding. Greg Platt (Ewan McGregor) hides the shame of being laid off by delivering pizzas to make ends meet while his wife Denise (Anne Hathaway), an aspiring novelist, channels her own frustrations through her work. They are parents of two kids, Aubrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery). Brian is coming of age and often lashes out at his parents due to their neglect. Aubrey is an aspiring astrophysicist that mostly keeps to herself. They also have a dog named Starbuck who frequently gets into trouble with their neighbour. All these conflicts bring a sort of familiarity with iconic 80s films. The fractured erosion of the nuclear family as individuality outgrows the singular familiar bond is ready to blow up prior to the introduction of dinosaurs.

The tone of this film is comedic and chaotic with the visuals pushing the limits of the PG-13 rating. Lots of neighbours are brutally murdered and dismembered in this film with a palpable sense of dread. A lot of the action and set pieces of this film bring to mind a Joe Dante influence, particularly in how he utilizes cartoon logic not too similar to Looney Tunes cartoons to create continually escalating set pieces. Unlike Jurassic Park, this film sidesteps realism to realize how these animals would react to an environment they were never exposed to. There’s humour in this as it reflects on both sides. Humanity and dinosaurs were never meant to meet and if they did it would probably be hysterical, especially if you are one step away from the carnage.

The film has incredibly focused wide shots, split diopters. The way the actors are directed within this is blocked very strongly so that the CGI carnage mostly works because of the practical destruction that surrounds it. Beyond the B-movie influences, the commitment of the actors help anchor the film by delivering strong performances that easily put the audience within the cartoon carnage. This film marks David Robert Mitchell’s return to directing and a significant change of pace and tone from what audiences have expected. While utilizing the same framework for the spectacle in It Follows, the larger budget allows the camerawork to be more experimental.

While Jurassic Park has influenced many when making creature features, even becoming a blueprint for the 2014 Godzilla film, I feel The End of Oak Street is going a bit deeper in terms of how it uses its influences. While Spielberg was a huge presence within the 80s, it was his company Amblin that redefined the coming of age tale, hiring a wide variety of filmmakers that shaped the 80s cinematically. Robert Zemeckis, Joe Dante, Chris Columbus, and even Richard Donner were all part of what made the 80s stand out cinematically. What David Robert Mitchell is doing, to me, feels like it’s drawing more from Joe Dante than Spielberg himself, even though there are some visual and musical motifs that are replicated brilliantly by Mike Gioulakis and Michael Giacchino respectively.

I feel most of the performances are solid. Ewan plays a husband on edge as his world is starting to unravel that you begin to feel empathetic for but the difference between his and Hathaway’s performances feels rather uneven. Hathaway’s portrayal as the workaholic wife that sees her marriage falling apart felt very compelling as you could feel her hurt while McGregor’s apathy falls flat. As the dinosaurs enter the characters’ lives, you really see Denise take the lead in not only protecting her children but attacking the dinosaurs head on. Hathaway’s physical performance is just as good as her dramatic moments – this to me makes a lot of the film work. The dino effects are limited and so you need real human performances to help sell the narrative. To up the stakes the film also includes a dog who causes a lot of the inciting incidents and splits up the family a fair amount of times.

The End of Oak Street is a fun romp that brings audiences back to the 80s by incorporating the decade’s tropes and style. It’s lean and mean and although it contains needle drops within it, the score is able to power through quite effectively. With great performance and a proper staging of action I couldn’t help but appreciate this film. The only real negatives I have for this, is it doesn’t utilize the practicality from those iconic Amblin films which makes the film feel inauthentic at times.

This film does not always work and lacks the practical effects magic its influences have. The film is bleak and brutal with its action placing the perspective of the audience with the family as they experience the carnage. The film due to its relationship with dinosaurs does a few homages to Jurassic Park, however there’s enough of a difference in blocking and framing to set it apart. While this may feel like a departure from his work for some, there’s a lot of similarity within the staging of his action, creating a cinematic voice that desperately needs to be heard, especially in a cinematic landscape that feels as if it’s continually shrinking. David Robert Mitchell gives hope that it can be more.

Watch the trailer right here.

All images via Warner Bros. Discovery.

Directed by David Robert Mitchell
Screenplay by David Robert Mitchell
Produced by J.J. Abrams, Hannah Minghella, Jon Cohen, David Robert Mitchell, Matt Jackson, Tommy Harper
Starring Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery
Premiere Date: August 9, 2026
Running Time: 99 minutes

Other Writers Say…

Jaime Rebanal

Take this a pretty enthusiastic 3.5/5 from myself: I had a total blast. I’m not sure that this movie entirely works as a concrete narrative, but David Robert Mitchell delivers on some great dinosaur thrills, so I can’t complain too much. That he’s also being so willing to push a PG-13 makes this ride an unforgettable one too.

Bode Sulaiman