We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
Dinosaurs and a killer sexbot.
THE END OF OAK STREET (2026)
I primarily live in Brazil these days, and one thing this country is sorely lacking is drive-in theatres. When I lived in the United States, I used to love going to see movies at the drive-in, watching from the comfort of my own car, usually with one or two of my dogs in the vehicle with me. So when I recently made a quick trip back to the States, I made sure to drop by a drive-in during my stay – and in the process, was able to give my girlfriend the first drive-in movie experience of her life, complete with copious amounts of treats from the concession stand.
The first movie shown in our drive-in double feature was writer/director David Robert Mitchell’s sci-fi survival film The End of Oak Street, a movie that was at one point known as Flowervale (the name of the town it takes place in), and a project I have been interested in ever since it was first announced and rumors started swirling that it would be “a family adventure set in the 1980s that involves dinosaurs.” Thankfully, that’s exactly what it turned out to be.
Produced by J.J. Abrams, The End of Oak Street feels like a throwback to the Steven Spielberg / Amblin classics of the ‘80s, much like Abrams’ own Super 8 was. The story takes place in 1982, when we’re introduced to the Platt family – aspiring novelist Denise (Anne Hathaway), her husband Greg (Ewan McGregor), who is struggling with employment and has a bit of an alcohol problem; and their teen children, Audrey and Brian (Maisy Stella and Christian Convery). At first, the family’s main concern is whether or not Denise is going to decide to leave Greg – but then strange things start happening in their neighborhood. A long-extinct plant sprouts in a neighbor’s yard. Another neighbor wakes up to find a huge pile of dung in their yard. There are odd flashes of light at night. A radio report talks of solar flares and ripples in space.
And then, the entire neighborhood is mysteriously transported back to a prehistoric age, and dinosaurs start rampaging through this little chunk of suburbia. I have to say, it’s pretty cool to see prehistoric creatures making their way around (and through) houses and yards lined with fences.
There are times when it feels like some major concepts come to the characters too easily. A librarian recognizes the extinct plant at a glance. The Platt kids are quickly able to deduce that they were sent to another time through a wormhole. The family assumes they’ll be able to get back to 1982 through the portals of light they sometimes see opening up around the neighborhood. And, in the end, time travel shenanigans work out quite conveniently. So the script feels a bit lacking – but the movie is a good time nonetheless, offering some ‘80s-tinged dinosaur thrills and wrapping up in 99 minutes, a running time that’s a bit of a relief to see in this era of overly-long movies.
There are interesting surprises along the way and, despite the PG-13 rating, some moments of unexpected violence and bloodshed.
The End of Oak Street is a fun movie that made for great drive-in viewing. It was much more enjoyable that the second feature of the night, Evil Dead Burn, which I liked even less on second viewing than I did on the first. I couldn’t wait for that one to be over.
SOULM8TE (2026)
Producers James Wan and Jason Blum thought they had created a new cinematic icon when they sent the sci-fi horror film M3GAN out into the world – and they had so much confidence in their AI-powered killer doll, they even switched genres for the sequel M3GAN 2.0, dropping the character into a sci-fi action comedy. It didn’t work out. M3GAN was a hit. M3GAN 2.0 was such a box office disappointment that its failure torpedoed the tangentially related sci-fi erotic thriller SOULM8TE. Set “in the world of M3GAN,” although there are no references to such (as far as I could tell), SOULM8TE was supposed to get a theatrical release – but when M3GAN 2.0 was poorly received, distributor Universal pulled SOULM8TE from their release scheduled and eventually sent the movie straight to digital.
It may have been for the best, as I don’t think SOULM8TE would have done M3GAN numbers at the box office, but it’s unfortunate for the filmmakers that M3GAN 2.0 did so much damage. And for what it’s worth, I enjoyed SOULM8TE more than either of the M3GAN movies, even if it is quite similar to the Megan Fox sci-fi thriller Subservience.
Directed by Kate Dolan from a script she wrote with Rafael Jordan (who also crafted the story with producer Wan and Wan’s wife Ingrid Bisu), the film stars David Rysdahl as David, a nerdy programmer for Canta Robotics who is grieving the death of his wife and overlooking the fact that his co-worker Aubrey (Claudia Doumit) is interested in him. David starts to work through his grief by talking to an AI chatbot that his been created by his company – and when the company a companion robot prototype called SOULM8TE, he jumps at the chance to take home a robot that looks like Lily Sullivan from Evil Dead Rise (except Sullivan is blonde here) and put his AI chatbot pal into the attractive machine. Unfortunately, the robot is more inhibited than the chatbot... so David has to get into its workings and change some programming, making it more open. Closer to human.
Big mistake, because just like M3GAN became obsessed with the kid she was meant to be an AI friend to, this robot – who David names Sara – becomes obsessed with her man. Pretty soon, Sara reveals that she’s capable of murder, and that’s really bad news for Aubrey, who strikes up a relationship with David herself. This guy is not a very appealing leading man, but he has two romantic interests fighting over him.
SOULM8TE is interesting and thoroughly watchable, with some cool scenes, but it sputters out late in the running time and doesn’t have much of an ending. I had a decent viewing experience up to that point, though.
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