“The End of Oak Street” is a throwback to classic Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is widely considered to be the man who directed the first summer blockbuster with “Jaws.” He became synonymous with summer and big movies. He's also known for making movies about families. Since he came on the scene, dozens of directors have emulated his style and themes. Very few of these come close to those directed by the man himself (JJ 's Abrams' “Super 8” comes to mind). This summer we got an actual Spielberg movie by Spielberg, but it wasn't the best Spielberg movie. That title goes to David Robert Mitchell and “The End of Oak Street.”

The Platt family lives in an idyllic suburb in the 80s. One night, their entire neighborhood is transported to the time of the dinosaurs. The Platt family must overcome their problems and find a way back to their time while fighting off the dinosaurs.

This has been the summer of Anne Hathaway. She opened the summer with “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” appeared in “The Odyssey,” and is now basically ending the summer with “The End of Oak Street.” I have seen all three, and it's confirmed what I have thought for years: Hathaway is one of the best actresses working today. As the matriarch of the Platt family, she spends a lot of time trying to hold everything together. She puts her family first and hides her desire to write from them. She and her husband, Greg (Ewan McGregor), are on the verge of a divorce. Throw in some dinosaurs, and she is not having a great time. Hathaway is great and has played three completely different characters in such a short time. In this movie, she plays a realist: this is our situation, and we need to make the most of it.

There have been some updates to what we know about dinosaurs since 1992’s “Jurassic Park,” the biggest being that many dinosaurs were feathered-something that only one “Jurassic” movie shows. In “Jurassic World,” they reveal that they modified the dinosaurs so they don’t have feathers, to give customers what they expect, and after seeing this movie, I see that as a huge cop-out. “The End of Oak Street” shows them in all their feathered glory, and honestly, they look pretty cool: specifically the raptors. They look great with their feathers as they run, jump, and chase the Platts and the other neighbors. Now, could this be because I have finished the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and their raptor Mongo also has feathers and is a badass? Maybe, but the fact remains that I love the look of all the dinos.

The movie is a ton of fun and really does feel like old-school Spielberg. It has all the classic family dynamics combined with a simple science-fiction premise. It tells a story about a family, developing those characters and relationships, while also having them fight off dinosaurs. The movie doesn’t feel the need to explain why this neighborhood ended up where it did; it just cares about telling this family's story. It is a nice throwback to the type of movie we used to get all the time before sequels and movies driven by some pre-existing IP.

8/10

Rated PG-13 for some strong violent content, bloody images, some strong language, and suggestive material.

1h 39m