Movie Review: The End of Oak Street

You know when you pick a movie because you like the main cast and then you watch that said movie, enjoy it because you were not putting too much thought into it, and even save it for future recommendations, only to run into a thought that makes your wonderful ending seem darker than you had initially thought? That was my entire thing with the movie. I had been waiting for the digital release to watch this at home because why not, and I did watch it over a weekend.

Quick Recap

Due to certain unnatural elements, Oak Street experiences a supernatural occurrence that seems to see a sphere of the neighbourhood displaced by ancient creatures, alias dinosaurs. When a normal suburban family realise this, the race is against every creature trying to kill them in order to find a way out of the dreaded street.

The Plot

First of all, kudos to the generative design for those dinosaurs. Oh my gosh! Everyone attributes dinosaurs to Jurassic Park, so to find a whole different species, scarier even without replicating Jurassic's type, had me applauding them. Those creatures were scary.

The juxtaposition of a lovely block party and Denise and Greg’s argument already let me know there were cracks. At first, I thought maybe someone cheated, but it became clear. The issue of getting bored, wanting more, lies, and everything in between in a marriage. And of course, in the middle, we have the children who are aware of the issues but also hopeful that a divorce does not tear them apart.

That was pretty much clear, but that comment about the pizza board making Denise embarrassed was a tad sullen. And the mother not knowing her son was smoking also showed how far detached the entire family actually was. But you know, marriages aren't perfect, so let’s go to the supernatural phenomenon.

The Blip

Over the radio, we hear the new reporter mentioning how NASA was monitoring some unexplainable black holes appearing around the city. Why? No one says. It’s just so casually mentioned, and everyone goes back to normal until the blip happens.

I will never understand why people risk their lives for pets in apocalypse movies. Pets survive. They always do. Always. Let the pet be. But then, when the parents came back knocking and those children wasted time opening the door, I almost lost my mind. After coming across whatever it is they saw in the window, would it not have been common sense to wait by the door for their parents? Duh.

But let’s continue.

As expected, the realisation of their predicament is the final crack in their issues, and they let it all out. In the midst of it, their stupid son decides that, hey, there are dinosaurs outside, why don’t I go save my barking dog? And his sister, rather than yelling out to get the parents first, follows suit. Seriously! And please, let’s not say he needed a way to handle the emotional turmoil of his parents shouting. Parents shout. Parents have issues. Leaving the safety of your home to pursue a dog that would most probably not be eaten by those creatures was a stupid move and orchestrated the other parts of the movie.

The Rules

Many time-travelling movies have rules, but the writers here were not intent on the supernatural aspect, but on the family survival aspect, because explain this:

Greg-past dies trying to save his wife, leaving Denise with her two children and the other girl whom they saved from a creature. After realising there’s a way to go back to the present, they go through the wormhole and arrive 20 minutes in the future before the blip happens. 

Using a phone booth, Denise calls for pizza, and Greg-present comes to deliver it. That means there’s a complete version of Greg, Denise, and the children. But Denise past gets Greg-present to complete her own family. That means Denise-present and the children exist.

Two years later, we find out that Denise-past placed calls to everyone in the neighbourhood to leave before the blip happened and saved them all, except the current version of that Denise and the children. Meaning that Denise-past intentionally let Denise-present die with the children so that they can get Greg-present.

In the family gathering, we realise that the girl they had saved exists in the same timeline with herself, but this version still has her parents. How exactly does that work? If the girl had not been doubled, we would have assumed that there was only one version of Denise and the children, but nope. Denise legit picked Greg and said, “See ya later, alligators.”

Beyond That

I did not want to go deep into this movie because I assume that was not what they wanted us to take away from it, but that Denise move was dark, real dark. Beyond the lack of rules and darkness, I honestly enjoyed watching it. I wished the writers had thought the rules and timeline through, or maybe they had not showed both versions of the girl. It’s a pretty okay watch and quite fun. Anne Hathaway has one more movie for us this year, and after that, she needs a year-long break because that lady has been busy.