The Pissed Take - The End of Oak Street

THE END OF OAK STREET — or — “THAT IS ONE BIG PILE OF SH#T” AKA JJ Abrams and company miss the point by a mile... again.

Release Date 14Aug, 2026

Imagine being given an empty bucket of popcorn, with single piece of candy corn in it... that someone farted in.

That is this movie.

THE END OF OAK STREET, directed by DAVID ROBERT MITCHELL (writer and director of IT FOLLOWS) and produced by JJ Abrams’ BAD ROBOT... I wish I had known this before watching.

NO SPOILERS

Set in an annoyingly contrived 1982, a really boring family with troubles gets transported by “strange lights” to... somewhere else.

duh

duh

duuuuuuuuuuuhhhh!!!

F#CKERY!

I used to be good about picking movies at random with virtually nonexistent marketing, and being at least marginally pleased with the surprise.

Movies don’t need to be masterpieces, nor do they have to be ill-conceived, irradiated kaiju shart. Once the provenance of the lower end of the “mid-budget movie,” were the nice surprises you used to see more often: movies with just enough budget and talent to make something, in some cases, truly memorable. They were, in those cases, movies that elevated the careers of their teams. This movie is certainly not the former, nor is it completely the latter.

It is a movie born from misremembered and misguided nostalgia. Understanding that something was important, distinctive, and popular is NOT the same as understanding WHY. This manufactured and reprocessed product of a spastic colon is a hallmark of Bad Robot.

The real shame is that there were elements here that totally could have made a pretty solid and enjoyable movie.

THE GOOD

There are a few legitimate scares or shocks in this movie. For an AMBLIN knock-off (the company Steven Spielberg founded in 1975, named after his ’68 short film, and the company that produced E.T. and stuff), this movie is surprisingly violent. Ummm... that’s it.

THE BAD

Everybody is a cardboard cutout; you don’t really get to know anyone. The adult leads, played by EWAN MACGREGOR’s one American accent and ANNE HATHAWAY, are asleep at the wheel, on the highway. The kids are annoying — especially the boy. UNNECESSARY SEX AND PHOTOGRAPHY (I said no spoilers). Surprisingly disappointing VFX from ILM. The ’80s had movies with memorable scores — at least a theme. Out of all the nostalgic photocopying here, you’d think they might have tried something. Look up what a HAND WAVE or an ASS PULL is... this movie.

SEE IT!

Nah. Not even sure it warrants a STREAM, HO(E)!!!

DON’T SEE IT!

Watch HARD TICKET TO HAWAII instead. That’ll tingle your dingle!