The End of Oak Street

It’s 1982. A young couple, Greg and Denise Platt, live in a quiet suburban cul-de-sac with their daughter, Audrey, and their son, Brian, in a small section of Detroit, Michigan. On the outside, they look like the perfect family; all smiles, laughs and full of happiness. In secret though, Greg and Denise have been really struggling with their marriage. Greg has been working various small jobs throughout the week, having been fired from his full time job a few weeks back, just to make ends meet.

Then one night, a giant blinding light brightens the night sky, along with a terrible, but brief, earthquake. When the Platt family wakes up things at first seem normal: their neighbor Carl being a total jerk to them, people biking on the street. Carl informs them that something (suggesting perhaps the Platt family’s dog Starbuck) left a massive mountain of dung in his backyard. “No dog could make that large of a pile” thinks Greg.

As the day progresses, things get stranger and stranger. As Denise drives her car, she notices that Oak street just cuts off, with nothing but a giant cliff in front of it, full of tropical trees and rare types of birds in the air. Then as Greg sees some kind of rodent scurrying around in a garbage can he realizes this is no rodent, that’s a dinosaur! He runs into Denise and the children and they quickly race home to safety.

Audrey, really gifted in science and physics, deduces that their whole street, and perhaps all of Metro Detroit, have been transported through some sort of loop hole, back in time to the Jurassic era. Now the question remains, how will the family survive this ordeal, and just how, exactly, are they supposed to get back to their time?

Welcome to the stone age…

I’ll get right to it: “The End of Oak Street” is a remarkable film in many ways. First off, the performances by the two adult leads, Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor, are spectacular. Sometimes you sit in a movie and in your head you think, “These are the perfect people for this role.” Anne Hathaway gives a nuanced yet layered performance as Denise. At times I could see the weight of the world spread across her face as she tries to bottle up her emotions (unhealthily I might add) for the sake of her family, and in an attempt to keep the family together. Ewan portrays, yes you’re everyday dad from the 80s, but, for the most part, he never lets his emotions show much: whether it’s terror at the sheer magnitude of their situation or whether he is, as well, trying to stay calm and collected for the sake of the family. The two leads really compliment each other. The children who play Audrey and Brian give solid performances as well (though I wonder if someone else could’ve played Brian).

What I appreciate though, is that the film serves as an homage (much like “Disclosure Day” did) to the numerous sci-fi films that came out in the 1980s (“Back to the Future,” and if you’re paying attention, you’ll hear and see some Easter Eggs that those who grew up watching sci-fi creature features of the 1980s may appreciate (“Jurassic Park,” “Close Encounters of a Third Kind,” “Back to the Future,” to name a few). Yet, even without the Easter Eggs this film has a story that stands on its own merits, with some genuine twists and turns that surprise.

However, the violence in this film is frequent and graphic at times, sometimes extremely graphic (human decapitations by various dinosaurs, human internal organs on display, mangled and bloodied faces on victims of the dinosaurs). These very graphic moments, indeed, made me queasy inside (it makes “Jurassic Park” look tame by comparison). As I watched, and scribbled down the content on my clipboard, I had to ask myself “How in the world did this get a PG-13 rating? It should’ve 100 percent been rated R.” After a couple days post screening, I still stand by that statement. The violence, and even the profanity, push this film beyond what is acceptable for a PG-13 rated film (I’d love to be a fly on the wall of the screening room where members of the MPA watch and rate various films). The content gets to be a bit too much. Speaking of which…

Content of Concern

VIOLENCE: Very Heavy. A giant dinosaur grabs a main character’s legs, eats his leg and then eats the rest of him. A character threatens to burn a man’s house down if he points or shoots a gun at Starbuck. Someone finds an elderly neighbor dead on their kitchen floor with her throat ripped open and her face disfigured. A raptor chases Greg until Denise shoots it with a shotgun. A giant bird attacks and chomps down on a neighbor’s head in two different scenes. A pterodactyl attacks people (we hear their screams). There is a brief graphic scene of a pterodactyl eating another pterodactyl. The neighbor Clark shoots a gun randomly in the air in hopes of killing a pterodactyl (one nearly hits the Platts in their home) but he is attacked and killed by a flock of pterodactyls. A T-Rex carries the body of a triceratops into a jungle. Another dinosaur attacks a couple taking cover in their car and the car catches fire (this fire spreads to a large portion of the neighborhood).

A tall teenager and his posse attack, beat and nearly choke a character. A bird attacks a girl until she is saved by another girl, who stabs the bird with a spear multiple times. A child mentions her parents were killed by dinosaurs. A stampede of dinosaurs attacks a family in a car. Another dinosaur attacks a different family. A giant snake tries to eat people. Birds are seen eating corpses (one of those corpses is a teen). Someone jumps off a roof in an attempt to return to the real world but misses the portal and breaks their leg as they hit the ground. A character is attacked and eaten (we also see the character’s deceased husband’s feet sticking out on the floor behind the bed.

VULGAR LANGUAGE: F*cking, Sh*t (8), Bullsh*t (3), B*tch, B*lls, A**, and Poop

PROFANITY: G*d (several), D*mn (4), D*mn it (2), H*ll (8), What the H*ll (3), H*ly Sh*t (several)

SEXUAL CONTENT: Two teens share a kiss. Someone says a dog might be getting fresh with another dog. One dinosaur is seen having graphic sex with another dinosaur against someone’s home (a couple run into this and snap a Polaroid photo for a memento) (this is a prolonged sequence). A couple share a kiss. A young boy looks at a model wearing lingerie in a Playboy magazine.

NUDITY: One outfit shows a young teenage girl’s backside. An adult female character is seen in a somewhat short bathrobe. DRUGS: A young teen is said to smoke cigarettes (he’s scolded for it by his parents). ALCOHOL: Kids on TV try beer in hopes of getting drunk.

MOCKERY OF CHRISTIANITY: One character, who rarely ever goes to church or reads the Bible (as his wife points out) talks about how God is not going to let their family die in the past.

OTHER: A large pile of dung is seen in someone’s back yard (the scene is somewhat long). We see more of it later. A dinosaur is seen defecating on someone’s lawn.

Lesson

Family is a central theme throughout “The End of Oak Street.” Families and family matters are often more complicated than what we see outside in public. The Platts’ marriage has been strained to the point where they are both considering a divorce. One thing’s for sure, family is considered an institution, like marriage, that is blessed and ordained. It also discusses the roles of both parents and children. For children it states…

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” —Exodus 20:12

My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. —Proverbs 6:20

“Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.” —Colossians 3:20

For parents God provides a LOT of guidance on raising children…

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. —Proverbs 22:6

For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church —1 Timothy 3:5

For families, Timothy explains how sacred a family is…

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. —1 Timothy 5:8

Closing Thoughts

Two days after screening “The End of Oak Street” there are some images that have remained in my head, many of them downright terrifying. People being eaten in graphic ways, non-stop terror from all the characters. It’s enough to gross out even someone who’s built a strong stomach for this kind of violence. Then again, should I be surprised this film is so intense? I mean, J.J. Abrams is at the helm.

Case in point, “The End of Oak Street” has a lot going for it: strong camerawork, strong performances and just an amazingly strong story for a creature feature. Yet, the content is something that goes beyond what is expected from something rated PG-13 (let’s face it, this should have been rated R). I’d argue that if Jurassic Park were made today it’d be rated R.

It goes without saying “The End of Oak Street” really isn’t a film to bring the family to, especially Christian families who have really young children. Best leave this film to adults only. Maybe spend time with your family doing something that doesn’t leave you in fear and perhaps just read about dinosaurs in a book. You’ll thank me later.

• Violence: Very Heavy
• Profane language: Moderate
• Vulgar/Crude language: Moderate
• Sex: Moderate
• Nudity: Mild
• Drugs/Alcohol: Mild
• Occult: None
• Wokeism: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.