The End of Oak Street (2026) | REVIEW

The Platt family (L-R: Ewan McGregor, Christian Convery, Maisy Stella, and Anne Hathaway) looking out at a changed world in THE END OF OAK STREET — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures (Still image from tra

Directed by David Robert Mitchell (It Follows; Under the Silver Lake) — Screenplay by David Robert Mitchell.

I think it’s fair to say that we’ve been treated to an undersupply of dinosaur films since Steven Spielberg and his crew perfected big-screen dinosaur action storytelling with the masterpiece that is 1993’s Jurassic Park. For whatever reason, there haven’t been many attempts to tell new stories with dinosaurs, other than the increasingly threadbare Jurassic sequels. The most notable live-action attempts have been Peter Jackson’s King Kong from the mid-2000s, which I quite like, and Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ quite underwhelming Adam Driver-vehicle titled 65. This summer, we’re treated to another attempt at non-Jurassic World dinosaur-centric cinema. The Warner Bros. picture is the long-awaited fourth feature from It Follows-director David Robert Mitchell, whose last film was the 2018 stoner noir film Under the Silver Lake, which has amassed something of a cult following. I thoroughly enjoyed both his horror breakthrough and his aforementioned cult film, so I can say that I’ve enjoyed every film of his that I’ve seen up to this point. The same goes for The End of Oak Street, which is a terrific crowd-pleaser of a dinosaur summer flick that ticks all the right boxes.

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REVIEW: 65 (2023)

Adam Driver and Ariana Greenblatt star in ’65’ — PHOTO: Patti Perret / Sony Pictures.

Directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods — Screenplay by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.

The first time I saw the trailer for 65, I was immediately hooked. Here was a sci-fi film, with an excellent leading man, that appeared to dare to do something else with dinosaurs than the Jurassic Park sequels did. ‘Dinosaurs versus Adam Driver with sci-fi weapons’ was a concept that was always right up my alley. I was curious to find out what novel sci-fi twist or spin that writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (the duo who wrote A Quiet Place) had hidden up their sleeves. However, 65 didn’t have all that much hidden in the final film that wasn’t already apparent from the trailer and this was a massive disappointment to me. 

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The Collection #2 – Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park - Collection

  • Jurassic Park (1993) – Directed by Steven Spielberg.

The Collection is a monthly opinion piece, which features a single film, trilogy, or the like that I consider to be one of the best of all-time – a must watch film or franchise. A new entry in The Collection will be highlighted and revealed on the third Monday of every month. This month I’m adding to The Collection with Jurassic Park, arguably the most visually impressive film of the 1990s. Continue reading “The Collection #2 – Jurassic Park”