Knee-jerk review: "The End of Oak Street"

1. Suburban neighborhood time-warp bubbled to prehistoric dinosaur age.  The kind of premise so obviously genius that you can't believe it took this long for someone to develop it.
2. You really cannot go wrong with time-warp bubbles.  Bonus points that the plot don't spend a lot of time trying to understand how or why happened, only that it did.
3. We also love that the movie takes full advantage of this crazy premise, especially as our hero family starts to figure out what's going on.  This is a textbook example of the part of any movie that screenwriting guru Blake Snyder calls "fun and games."
4. We're still not 100% sold on Anne Hathaway.  Is that terrible?  She's solid no doubt, but she's also so often clearly "acting."
5. The movie is set in the 1980s and the production design is, of course, spot on.  Like Netflix's "Stranger Things," it's also an homage to genre movies of that period as a family on the brink of separation and divorce come together to grapple with a supernatural adventure.
6. In fact there's a whole John Updike-style 1970s suburban malaise vibe (dad's a drinker, mom's writing a secret novel and dreaming of running away, nerdy sister is kind of an outcast, neighbor is a jerk) bubbling under the surface adds nice gravitas.
7. We know the characters had to get out of the house and into the neighborhood for there to be second act action, but there surely is a more plausible and understandable reason than the kids chasing after a dog that got out out of the yard and then parents chasing the kids.
8. Blink and you'll miss a throwaway moment showing why Anne's character is so good with a shotgun.
9. Yes, people do get eaten.  Doesn't seem like a great way to go.
10. Weird that the neighbors don't join forces and share resources.  Instead, it's very much every house for itself.
11. We're ashamed of ourselves for saying it, but we really disliked the little brother.  What a mess.
12. The ending - and especially the tag - takes a pretty wild left turn via those time-warp bubbles.  Very memorable, but also - the more you think about what Anne did to solve the problem - very  dark.  (Also, did she really have that much time to put her plan into motion?)

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