My BRUTALLY HONEST REVIEW of THE END OF OAK STREET

The End Of Oak Street takes place in an ordinary suburban location, albeit after a major storm which caused everyone to cower, and then the rain and lightning instantly disappeared, strange things are afoot.

Suddenly, elderly neighbour, Mrs. Huddleston (Anne Gee Byrd), has a plant growing in her yard that hasn’t existed for millions of years, while Denise (Anne Hathaway – The Devil Wears Prada 2) and Greg Platt’s (Ewan McGregor – Raymond and Ray) neighbour, Mel (PJ Byrne – Gen V), has a massive pile of shit in his yard, leading to the latter blaming the Platts’ kids for the apparent prank.

Elsewhere, have the tectonic plates in the Earth’s crust shifted? Erm… no, since 30 minutes in – and both the trailer and poster DO show this – and the culprits are revealed to be dinosaurs that have returned to Earth!

If you’re going to bring dinosaurs back, then fine, but while the CGI in this $90m summer movie is good, AT LEAST give us an interesting story to go round it, and how come there’s hardly anyone else around in this busy housing estate? This is where writer/director David Robert Mitchell (Under The Silver Lake) failed. As such, we have a moderately entertaining 90 minutes-ish to look at before the end credits come, but there’s a hell of a lot of padding, and I wouldn’t rush to sit through the whole thing again.

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Plus, the IMAX version was created with around 44 minutes opened up to 1.90:1. The only problem is that with The Odyssey still hogging the IMAX for the time being, it won’t get a look-in. I did see the trailer in IMAX, though, prior to seeing Nolan’s film in IMAX, and it showed those particular scenes, but it just highlights how the whole film may as well have been shot in 1.85:1 in the first place, anyway. This is evidenct in one scene where the family literally drive to The End Of Oak Street, and another when Denise and Greg see two dinosaurs next to a house.

Talking about the trailer, I spotted a case of where it’s shot slightly differently from the film. The trailer shows a scene where, similar to what Brian De Palma used to do, various members of the family are shot while sat down in the lounge, such that one is in the foreground on one side of the screen, while the other is on the other side and in the background, but BOTH are in focus.

In this case, Denise wimpers, “I think… that our house… has moved.” In the actual film, she says, “I think… that the neighbourhood… has moved… and that our house… is somewhere else…”

Okay, an alternate take, but I tend to spot such things.

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And if anyone who’s technical can spot what’s happening in the screen I saw this in (Trafford Centre screen 12), please tell me.

I have mentioned this problem before, but now, screen 12 has a Laser projector, and STILL has the same problem!

Basically, screen 12 at Trafford Centre is a 1.85:1 screen, but the projector is set up as such that the picture has been overscanning for years, meaning it is effectively zoomed-in by approx 0.15:1 all around the screen. This is most easily spotted if a 2.39:1 film is on there, as the black bars look more like a 2.1:1 film, so it’s cropping the sides of that. If it’s a 1.85:1 film, it’ll be cropped all the way round.

In fact, the only time I’ve ever seen a film shown correctly, was for Undertone, which was shot in 2.12:1, but placed within a 2.39:1 container – generally for such screens, but since it was on a 1.85:1 screen, it was effectively windowboxed.

I’ve mentioned this in person, and to the people online – and I’ve even been told that technical people have been out to it, and think they’ve fixed it. But clearly, Mr Magoo’s signed off on it, since it’s still the same.

I was hoping that with a change of projector to Laser, they’d recalibrate the whole thing from scratch and it would now be properly aligned. But no! It’s still the same!

I saw The End of Oak Street in 12, and another 2.39:1 in screen 15 on the same day (exactly the same set up, but with the entrance on the other side), and could instantly spot the difference.

So, how the hell does no supposedly technical human being manage to spot this? Unless that was BS about someone being brought in. Even still, you’d think someone changing over the projector would have a degree of knowledge, unless that’s the job of the security guard overnight(?)

NOTE: There are no mid- nor post-credits scenes.

The End Of Oak Street is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD.

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The End Of Oak Street – Official Trailer – Warner Bros

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Detailed specs:

Cert:
Running time: 99 minutes
Release date: August 14th 2026
Studio: Warner Bros
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1; 1.90:1 (some scenes, IMAX version)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 5/10

Director: David Robert Mitchell
Producers: JJ Abrams, Jon Cohen, Tommy Harper, Matt Jackson, Hannah Minghella, David Robert Mitchell
Writer: David Robert Mitchell
Music: Michael Giacchino

Cast:
Denise Platt: Anne Hathaway
Greg Platt: Ewan McGregor
Audrey Platt: Maisy Stella
Brian Platt: Christian Convery
Jeannette Christiansen: Jordan Alexa Davis
Mel Jacobs: PJ Byrne
Kaden Tucker: Hudson Meek
Mrs. Huddleston: Anne Gee Byrd
Mrs. Valcourt: Emily Kuroda
Zachary: Simms May
Mason: Walker Russell
Fergus: Hugo Silver
Ashon: Michael-Christian Moore
Charles Tucker: David Alexander Kaplan
Leon: Christopher A Martin
Mrs. Rey: Denitra Isler

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