If your looking for fun, bloodthirsty dinosaur’s, then head to Oak Street writes Carter Smith
In 1993, Steven Spielberg transcended cinema with his dinosaur epic Jurassic Park. All it took was Chris Pratt’s posse and a trilogy of aggressively average legacy sequels to destroy the excitement and wonder they’d built. All we could hope for was a meteorite crashing down in the Jurassic World universe, reducing this franchise to its bones.
Director David Robert Mitchell had an alternative to their second extinction. He had an idea. A simple idea. Make dinosaurs fun again. He brought these prehistoric creatures to the doorsteps of the families in Oak Street to unleash terror we haven’t seen from a dino in decades.
He puts us with the dysfunctional Platt family. Divorce looms for parents Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor); kids Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery) are blatantly aware of their parents’ discomfort with one another, leading to Brian acting out, and they have none of the necessary skills to survive the cosmic event that has arrived at their neighbourhood.
As much as the family falling apart leads to a few cliches, it’s a nice change of pace not to have a dinosaur expert or ex-militarian helping navigate the situation. Just pure adrenaline and will to live keeping these alive.
The situations they find themselves in get increasingly tense and create some good laughs – a rooftop incident with Brian made me audibly chuckle – which was a bonus. A special mention to Anne Hathaway, who is way too good for the turn-your-brain-off movie this essentially is.
But I didn’t come here for the family dynamics, despite them impressing me. I came here to see dinosaurs wreak havoc, and you get that and then some – menacing, vicious, and with no regard for human life. They are just pure murderous dinos. Long may that continue.
- The End of Oak Street is available to buy on various streaming platforms
