Anne Hathaway Kicking Butt and Taking Names at The End of Oak Street

 

Audiences seem fascinated with post-apocalyptic, dystopian ideology in feature films and television.  It’s why  “Paradise” and the FX hit  “The Walking Dead” resonate on a global scale. With a heavy, Spielberg influence, imaginative writer/director David Robert Mitchell, makes The End of Oak Street a vibe.

So, the Platt family are having some issues. Denise (Anne Hathaway), a housewife has aspirations to be writer and her husband Greg (Ewan McGregor) can’t hold down a job,  Ben (Christian Convery) is the neighborhood bullies prime target and Audrey (Maisey Stella) is quietly keeping her authentic self under wraps. All of a sudden, a mysterious lightening flash results in a cosmic event ripping Oak Street from suburbia and transporting its neighborhood to parts unknown.  In this moment this family fo four has to stick together to survive or succumb to the chaos in their midst, especially since the entire street has been transported from 1982 to a prehistoric wormhole crawling with creatures.

All I have to say is Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are the onscreen duo I didn’t know I needed. Their fantastic chemistry makes their familial discord resonate on a visceral level.  Individually and separate, Maisey Stella and Christian Convery are engagingly solid holding their own in every scene tey inhabit.

Not sure if watching low budget dinosaurs trample and pillage through suburbia is worth the ticket price, but when you add witty/biting dialogue like  “…you won’t go to church on Sunday and now you’re telling them God wouldn’t let us die,’  from director/writer Mitchell and  those “E.T” kids on bikes at the crest of a hill like the kids in “Stand By Me” are priceless.

Often predictable, but hilarious, The End of Oak Street is a real-time tribute to one of the greatest filmmakers of our generation while providing a blockbuster sci-fi adventure sure to have tongues wagging for weeks.