The best dinosaur movie since Jurassic Park | The End of Oak Street (2026)

If you love dinosaurs or dinosaur movies, you’re going to love this movie. This is probably my second favorite dinosaur movie of all time, sitting only behind what I’m sure everyone else is thinking…65 (joke). Surprisingly, there aren’t many dinosaur movies that aren’t attached to the Jurassic Park franchise and most of those movies aren’t even any good outside of the original masterpiece. The Valley of Gwangi, The Land that Time Forgot and One Million Years B.C. come to mind. Director David Robert Mitchell said that the whole idea started with the image of a dinosaur rummaging around garbage cans in an ordinary Michigan neighborhood, and I like that instead of theme-park attractions these dinosaurs are allowed to be animals. Brutal, terrifying animals. 

If you like old school, Spielberg style Amblin adventures - think, bikes and backyards 80’s suburbia that mixes wonder with danger, you’re going to dig this. The story is about a suburban neighborhood in Michigan that, through cosmic malarky, is swapped with the same plot of land twenty million years ago. We follow The Platt family as they try to survive in a world they were never meant to be a part of, played by Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Christian Convery and Maisy Stella, who I’m a huge fan of after seeing her in the film My Old Ass. Now, this movie, while rated PG-13, goes insanely hard. I was surprised to find out afterward that it was not rated R, so if you’ve got an early teen, just be warned that it’s very violent and very intense. The dinosaurs in this are not just there to inspire awe, they rip people to shreds. It’s like the Spielberg framework but pushed much further into horror. I felt notes of Gremlins, Signs, Super 8 and especially Poltergeist at times.

Speaking of Poltergeist, the score by Michael Giacchino actually reminded me of Jerry Goldsmith’s score for that film, which was released in 1982, the same year that The End of Oak Street is set. His big, melodic score gives you a sweeping sense of discovery you want from a dinosaur movie and then switches into a thumping, heart racing monster movie score when it needs to. The score was prominent enough to receive its own vinyl release alongside the theatrical opening. Giacchino has already scored some Jurassic World films so he understands the musical language audiences associate with dinosaurs and didn’t just try to replicate John Williams.

I’ve been a fan of David Robert Mitchell since I saw his masterpiece It Follows, but after Under the Silver Lake back in 2018, he’s been pretty quiet. Now he’s got blockbuster money, and it all shows on screen, but he’s still decidedly David Robert Mitchell. He told The AU Review that he prefers carefully choosing camera placement rather than simply covering scenes with six cameras, asking what each frame makes the audience feel and what might be lurking outside it. He’s also got some killer split diopter shots, shout out to Brian De Palma, there are two distinct scenes that look so interesting simply because we’re not used to seeing conversations shot that way.. I never saw David Robert Mitchell doing a big budget sci-fi movie but his action scenes rip so hard that I really hope he does it again. There’s a scene where the Platt family is trying to distract an Allosaurus and it’s all done in one take as the characters run different ways and it’s just so cool.

Last but certainly not least - if you’re looking for a strong female lead, Anne Hathaway, who has straight up won the summer of 2026 with this, The Odyssey and The Devil Wears Prada II, is so badass in this. She’s not the mom waiting for someone to save the family. She’s a decision maker. She’s realistic to the point of pessimism. She has a feeling this is it, but she’s not going down without a fight. David Robert Mitchell specifically praised what Hathaway brings to the scenes where she’s clearly surviving, pointing to a moment where her face communicates both fear and resolve simultaneously. Anne Hathaway in 80’s jeans taking on dinosaurs with a shotgun? That’s all I’ve really ever wanted.

So the first Top 5 list I see this one comfortably being on is Top 5 badass women. Her character Denise easily sits next to Sarah Connor from Terminator 2, Ripley in Aliens, Erin in You’re Next and Grace from Ready or Not. The second is Top 5 Suburban Nightmares. This would be a fun one with flicks like Gremlins and Poltergeist, David Robert Mitchell’s own It Follows, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Burbs.

I really loved The End of Oak Street and I cannot wait to see it again. It’s got everything I want in a movie - relatable characters, great sets, thrills, chills, laughs, oh my god I cannot believe they went there moments, a Twilight Zone-esc feel and dinosaurs getting busy. Seriously though I cannot see a world in which this isn’t in my top 5 films at the end of the year and if it’s not, I guess it’s been a really fantastic year for movies. If you’ve seen The End of Oak Street, what did you think of it? If you have a movie you want me to do a 5 reasons video for, email me at forcefivepodcast@gmail.com.

Life is short. Spend it with the people, and the movies, that you love.