The End of Oak Street

A whole town yanked back into dinosaur time, and the movie plays it straight. That's the pitch, and it works.

The Platt family is as clever as the plot, which is the highest compliment I can pay a survival movie. Nobody's holding the idiot ball so the script can find its next scare. They think, they adapt, they stick together, and the movie earns every bit of it.

They move like animals with their own agenda instead of monsters waiting on a cue.

Anne Hathaway is spectacular here. She carries the worry and the tension in the right doses, never tipping into hysteria, always looking like someone doing math on how everybody gets through the next hour. Ewan McGregor is just as good going the other direction, the relentlessly optimistic dad, and the two of them together give the thing a real spine.

Maisy Stella and Christian Convery pull off the hard trick: terrified and brave at the same time. Kids in movies like this usually get stuck being one or the other. These two get to be both, sometimes in the same breath.

And the dinosaurs? Bonus. They look great and, more importantly, they act great. They move like animals with their own agenda instead of monsters waiting on a cue. Somebody put in the work there, and it shows on the screen.

It's a family survival film and an adventure at the same time, and it doesn't cheat either half. Chaos ensues, but it's the fun kind of chaos, the kind you lean forward for.

Saw it on a date night, in a theater, and the theater absolutely made it better. Big room, big sound, big lizards. That's the deal.

It stuck with me on the drive home, which doesn't happen as often as I'd like. I'd watch it again tomorrow. I'd recommend it to just about anybody. Go see it on the biggest screen you can find.