The End Of Oak Street – Review

Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 39 minutes, Director – David Robert Mitchell

The Platt family (Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery) fight for their lives, trying to find a way to escape their neighbourhood when overnight it’s transported to an unknown location surrounded by dinosaurs.

What makes something a summer blockbuster has changed over the last 51 years since Spielberg’s Jaws was labelled the first. Then, audiences seeking the cinema’s air-con literally queuing round the block to see whatever was on. Fortunately, they were met with thrills, action, a fear factor, maybe some chuckles and an all-round entertaining film.

With occasional coming-of-age themes Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment would create a mould for the summer blockbuster that provided family entertainment into the 80s. Sat in a cool cinema the nostalgic feeling of David Robert Mitchell’s 80s-set The End Of Oak Street washed over me as his own Amblin-esque tale played out.

The concept sounds ridiculous, it is. A family (Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery) finds themselves fighting for survival, and escape, when their neighbourhood is transported via solar flare to an unknown location with dinosaurs running through it. Screams run through the street in contrast to the laughs and chatter of the summer street party taking place in the opening scenes. There’s plenty of thrills and tension on display as chases unfold, characters use what they can get hold of to fight back and one snake-like creature proves immensely unsettling.

Hathway and McGregor fully commit to the film, selling Mitchell’s various ‘reaction then action’ shots, with the former giving one of her best performances this year. They create just as much tension as the prehistoric threats, matched with Michael Giacchino’s John Williams-style score; matching the maestro’s notable brass-force style throughout without feeling like a copy.

And neither does Oak Street itself feel like a copy. The film is dedicated to Mitchell’s late father, and it feels like the kind that he may have grown up watching with him at the cinema. A personal hint at the finale of this entertaining ride, where viewing environment could play as much a role as the tone of the film; one that with its 12 rating doesn’t shy away from intensity whilst still standing as family viewing.

For 99-minutes, with things getting out just as they threaten being drawn out, I was utterly thrilled and entertained. Summer 2026 has been a big deal for cinema; Spider-Man and The Odyssey helped break records for the biggest weekend ever at the US box office, the first week-and-a-half of August alone in the UK saw over half the amount of admissions that the entire month saw last year. There have been plenty of great, acclaimed films, but sometimes you just want to walk out the cinema smiling. The End Of Oak Street did just that for me through pure enjoyment.

Stepping past the fact it could so easily start and continue as nonsense, The End Of Oak Street is a nostalgic callback to the cinematic escapes that it emulates. Thrilling summer entertainment in one of its truest forms. 

A throwback to the Amblin blockbusters of the 80s, The End Of Oak Street has fear, thrills and lashings of fun. Pure nostalgic entertainment from start to finish.