(Photo Credit: Alon Amir)
(“The End of Oak Street” trailer courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
Hey man, say man.
Stay away from Oak Street if you value your life.
On the northwest side of that H-Town (or H-Tine to be exact), Oak Street is known for straight gangsterism.
But in “The End of Oak Street,” not even the hardest gangstas with the biggest guns would have a chance with the nemesis taking over this hood.
The Platt family in “The End of Oak Street” seems like the typical Midwest suburban family.
But behind closed doors, like many families, they have some issues that they are dealing with.
The marriage of Denise (Anne Hathaway, “The Odyssey”) and Greg (Ewan McGregor, “T2 Trainspotting”) has seen its better days.
Even their children, Audry (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery), are stressed that their parents might be getting a divorce.
Denise is an aspiring writer, and an experienced editor from the neighborhood believes she has something special in the first draft of her novel.
Although Denise’s career trajectory might be on the incline, Greg’s career is on a sharp decline.
Like a real man, Greg gets a job delivering pizzas just to keep a roof over his children’s heads and food in their stomachs.
However, Denise is embarrassed that Greg has been reduced to such a job, and does not want anything related to Pete’s Pizza on his car when he returns home.
The couple argues over the smallest think like Brian bringing his dog Starbuck to a neighborhood block party.
Starbuck is not popular with everyone, especially their neighbor, Mel Jacobs (P.J. Byrne).
In “The End of Oak Street,” Mel is convinced that Starbuck is digging into his backyard and creating all kinds of havoc at night.
But being the good neighbors that they are, the Platts always try to quell any turmoil with their neighbors before it gets out of hand.
Unfortunately, the destruction of Mel’s backyard never subsides.
Furthermore, strange activity is taking place at the houses of other neighbors, too, like plants appearing out of nowhere.
To make matters even weirder is the fact that the plants have been extinct for approximately two million years.
If things could not get weirder in “The End of Oak Street,” Brian begins seeing bright lights and hearing loud noises in the middle of the night.
At first, he is the only family member who notices the nighttime activity.
But later, the rest of the Platt family begins experiencing what Brian is experiencing.
Unfortunately, weird transforms into danger when it becomes evident that Oak Street has become its own version of Jurassic Park.
But Jurassic Park was a theme park, and there are exits at amusement parks.
However, what happens when the prehistoric creatures have the residents of Oak Street trapped with no way out?
You must fight if flight is not an option.
When death seems imminent, a dysfunctional and fracturing family must stick together or become dinosaur food for the new gangsters running Oak Street.
“The End of Oak Street” is definitely wild and unique.
There is a good chance that moviegoers would have never seen anything like it.
Obviously, the “Jurassic Park” franchise is the closest thing to it.
While “The End of Oak Street” is not as good as most “Jurassic Park” films, it is definitely worth an hour and a half of people’s time.
The performances are solid.
Hathaway is the biggest name in “The End of Oak Street.”
But the most compelling actors, probably for people of a certain age, are Convery and Stella.
Those who grew up in the 1980s will feel a closeness to the characters Audrey and Brian.
“The End of Oak Street” takes place in 1982.
Those days represent a simpler time for a certain demographic before technology changed the world forever.
It was a time of listening to music on a Walkman.
Back then, children found out who won a baseball game by listening to a news program on the radio or watching one on television.
Back in the day, youngsters did not shoot their shot at girls via social media.
They met the new girl in the neighborhood in person and hollered at her.
Bullies did not torment their enemies online.
In the 1980s, bullies chased down their “opps” and put belt to a** without fear of it being recorded on a smartphone.
But what 1980s babies did not have back in the day was the fear that dinosaurs would commandeer their neighborhoods.
Gen X’ers did not deal with bullies like that.
But wanting to survive will turn anyone into David, even if Goliath is an absolute monster.
Unfortunately, “The End of Oak Street” has some cheesy scenes.
And like many movies with some horror in it, the characters in “The End of Oak Street” have some head-scratching, crazy-dummy moments.
Horror fans often say that horror movies are funny when they should not be.
“The End of Oak Street” definitely fits that stereotype.
But the movie, thankfully, does not fit the stereotype of all Hollywood movies being formulaic and predictable.
“The End of Oak Street” shows some creativity and eccentricity.
Hopefully, it shows Hollywood what can be accomplished if filmmakers think outside of the box and give moviegoers something wild and unique.
REGAL RATINGS
FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT
THREE CROWNS=GOOD
TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE
ONE CROWN=POOR
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