The End of Oak Street: HBO Max Movie Review

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery
Director: David Robert Mitchell

If you've ever wanted to see a dinosaur film where the dinos are rapacious, then It Follows director David Robert Mitchell has just the thing for you.

But be warned, while the execution follows the concept, the answers are not really forthcoming in a romp that has echoes of 1980s family films, pushed to the extreme edges of what's considered family friendly in a movie.

It's a very familiar set-up - in a seeming utopia, Denise and Greg Platt (Hathaway, all bangs and grit, and McGregor, wearing some of the shortest shorts you'll see) are a happy couple, with two kids (Sweet Tooth star Convery and Nashville's Stella) and a dog.

But under the surface, they hide their resentments from each other - Denise bashes away at a book in the basement at night while her husband delivers pizzas on top of his day job; and in the background, the two kids watch their silent squabbles with forlorn faces, full of fear of the possibility of divorce.

When a lightning storm knocks out all their power, the Platts find themselves ripped from suburbia and their entire neighborhood transported to someplace unknown. Things get worse when they go to find their errant dog Starbuck, only to discover their little corner is filled with dinosaurs waiting to get them.

As mentioned, the premise of The End of Oak Street works well.

It's in the smaller details that Mitchell creates a sense of horror and suspense in among the familiar romp which unfolds. Whether it's a flock of dinos picking at a fallen ginger cat or the Platts hiding from a dino stampede with a dead person in the front of their car they take solace in, Mitchell has an uncanny knack of making the everyday feel threatened - something he delivered to perfection in It Follows.

However, as the plot veers between escaping the dinos and slowing down to discuss what's next, the film finds a familiar rhythm that occasionally veers on repetitive, but somehow never manages to grate.

Whether it's a riff on the stalking Velociraptors from Jurassic Park in the shape of a slithering snake or Twilight Zone moments, The End of Oak Street has a way of sledgehammering through genres and turning the final result into something pleasantly watchable, but also simultaneously forgettable. (There's also one moment that genuinely does take your breath away, and feels daring for the genre.)

It may be that The End Of Oak Street is a suburban story that's padded out with too much drama and a lesbian sidestory, and one that could have stood to be more subversive in its Spielberg apeing, but as a romp through the dramas of family life, it's quite a doozy.

Technics A1000: Review

Sometimes a piece of kit comes your way that redefines how you look at the services it provides - and all its other competitor.

The Technics A1000 is one such piece of technology.

These premium over-the-ear headphones, from the much-praised Technics brand, offer a high-level service (admittedly for a high-level price point) that once you've used, are very hard to put down or imagine even using something else.

Technics has form in this arena though - having launched the A800 over-ear headphones a few years back and the uniformly excellent AZ range of mini earbuds, the company knows how to produce a quality piece of kit that does what it needs to and ensures you don't stay from their eco-structure.

So it's no surprise to say that with the Technics A1000, they've done it again.

Design and comfort are perhaps the two areas where Technics put most of its money in these - and it shows from the moment you open the package.

With a hard-shell case that keeps the headphones and charging gear neatly snug and carefully protected, it's clear that Technics have put first impressions front of mind. With many mid-range headphone providers dispatching a way to look after their headphones or even include a charger (citing e-waste concerns), Technics has decided that an all-in-one approach is the best way to go, including tidy compartments for USB-C charging cable and enough room to fold the headphones. It's a welcome touch, and the first sign that premium counts for something.

Blessed with an elegant sleek look and a design that feels contemporary and timeless, the Technics A1000 make a case for ease of use, with the Bluetooth connecting within seconds and pairing done before you've even realised it's begun. It's the small things that the Panasonic audio brand gets right, and they leave the right impression.
Weighing in at around 306g, these are not heavy headphones and it's an important distinction given how long they'll sit atop of your head. With an adjustable metal bar on the top and generous padding on both the headband and ear cups filled with memory foam, these feel comfortable from very first use and soon become headgear you've got used to and don't want to be parted from.

The hinges on the side of the ear cups also feel sturdy enough to endure plenty of use and ensure that no amount of putting them back in the case and taking them out will result in any kind of damage.

Battery life is impressive too - with ANC on, there's some 45 hours and with it off, 90 hours - it's a generous use and given the ANC is automatic and cancels out the noise around you, filtering out only your sound to enjoy, it's more than what you'll need.

Chiefly though what powers this better sound is the 40mm magnetic fluid driver, which keeps the parts moving within for a lower level of distortion. It's proprietary tech which was used in its AZ100 earbuds and will leave the bass singing out more than feeling like it's been muddied and mixed down below.

Long hours of continual use of these headphones also prove to be beneficial too.

There's little sign of ear sweat after a gaming session and there's no feeling of the weight of the headset pushing down on the head either - the light nature of the gear coupled with the comfort means they're perfect for either a binge-watch or a gaming session.

Perhaps the only minor niggle is that the volume control on the right earcup feels a little plasticky and requires leverage control rather than button pressing, but given that's a minor design thing which can no doubt be fixed on future releases, the A1000 make a serious case for being part of your audio gear.

Technics has always been about quality and comfort, as well as trying to push the audio envelope.

With this latest set of wireless headphones, it's made a clear-cut case for ownership and even though they're on a pricepoint similar to Sony's range, they're well worth considering for an investment because they'll last you for years and won't leave you feeling like they've let you down on any front.

Ebenezer: Movie Review

Cast: Johnny Depp, Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Sam Claflin, Daisy Ridley, Arthur Conti, Ellie Bamber, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Charlie Murphy, Tramell Tillman, and Ian McKellen. 
Director: Ti West

Horror director Ti West, who brought us the brilliant Mia Goth-led Pearl trilogy, turns his hand to another haunting idea - relaunching Johnny Depp back into the cinematic consciousness.

In this latest, a take on the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Depp stars as Ebenezer Scrooge - in a film that promises to expand the backstory of Scrooge.

What's on Prime Video in December

Here's everything that's streaming on Prime Video in December 2026

The Man With the Bag (December 8)

When Santa’s magic bag is stolen, he turns to his naughty list to find Vance, a thief, to help him get it back. Along with his daughter, Santa, and a group of misfits, Vance will have to pull off the greatest heist of his life to save Christmas.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in the Christmas genre after 30 years taking on the role of Santa Claus himself! The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alan Ritchson, Berkeley James, Michael Cyril Creighton, Liza Koshy, Kyle Mooney, Jane Krakowski, with Ken Jeong and Awkwafina.

Fatherland: Movie Review

Cast: Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler 
Director: Paweł Pawlikowski 

Post-war Germany has never looked as stark as it does in Cold War director Paweł Pawlikowski's latest, a sparse and short-running film which does much with its 82 minutes as most films do over a course of a couple of hours.

Focusing on Erika (Project Hail Mary's Hüller) and her father, self-exiled Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Zischler) in 1949 Germany, the film follows Mann as he heads back to his fatherland to receive the Goethe Prize after he fled to the US to escape the Nazi regime.

Feted as a hero and given mayoral welcomes on his return and fated to always been without a home, Mann is the centre of attention - but his relationship with his family and daughter become more estranged than ever after a tragedy rocks the pair while on their tour.

As the schism grows, the ties that bind start to creak and groan amid disillusionment...

Pawlikowski's film isn't interested in a wider view, and its strength lies in its intimacy, but by casting this against the backdrop of a New Germany that's trying to find its place in the world post-Hitler and amid growing recriminations and resentments gives its dialogue and subtleties a greater power than hundreds of words or screen minutes could muster.

What's fascinating about what Fatherland does is how it grows the issue of becoming disaffected - from Erika's brother Klaus' feeling of loss at the start of the film to Erika's growing resentment at how her father's choosing to put duty to a country he fled from ahead of family, there's a sense here of a wider issue - one that plays to the nature of both Germany struggling in post-war world and also how individuals who've been impacted by the war are trying to piece themselves together.

It helps that Hüller makes a great fist of little need for backstory here - the subtle dialogue and touches make up for most of that, and Hüller builds on her own strengths to draw depth when initially there feels like none.

Fatherland is an intriguing film, one that initially pushes you away with its black and white imagery and its seeming chilliness - but by the end of the journey and the characters' arc, as two people settle into a random church by the side of a road and take in an organ, saying nothing, yet somehow relaying everything in the most simple of looks and touches, you'll be hard pressed to not be affected.

Grand Theft Auto VI Pre-loading begins now

After years of waiting, the day fans of Grand Theft Auto VI have been waiting for is finally here.

From today, two days earlier than was previously announced, players can begin pre-loading Grand Theft Auto VI.

You'll need to clear 212GB from your console to allow for the game to be downloaded - plus, you'll need to have pre-ordered the game to have access to it.

Rockstar Games confirmed pre-loading begins November 10 at midnight local time on PS5 and 12 a.m. GMT on Xbox, with the game needing up to 212GB of storage.

About Grand Theft Auto VI

Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. 

But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.

For more information on Grand Theft Auto VI, head to https://www.rockstargames.com/VI.

Grand Theft Auto VI releases November 19.