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Unpacking the Thrills of 'The End of Oak Street': Our Take on Adventure, Dinosaurs, and Nostalgic Cinema · The K.B. Radio Network

• 0:03
  hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and welcome to the review of the end of oak street the new science fiction survival film written and directed by
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  david robert mitchell who gave us the horror film It follows its stars.
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  Anne Hathaway,
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  who is in...
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  everything it seems like in 2026 along with her is ewan mcguiger and in this film they are parents in this family whose suburban neighborhood has been transported from 1982 into prehistoric times the
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  film is also produced by jj abrams who is uh the man who gave us the prequel or not the prequel but the sequel trilogy
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  in Star Wars with Force of Raken and
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  God forbid
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  The Rise of Skywalker and
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  Alias and Lost and Mission Impossible 3 and so on and so forth but he's producing this film and
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  I must say
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  I was very very intrigued by it for one reason not because of the prehistoric elements or
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  Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor who are all
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  awesome and and interesting at the same time it was because of david robert mitchell not because i think he's a horrible director not because i think he's a great director it was just a weird choice i
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  felt for this film you know and that's me going in blind uh you know when i first saw the trailer i'm like man i don't i didn't see this from a david mitchell rock
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  or david robert mitchell i i didn't see this you know going from that small philosophical horror film to this big large summer blockbuster film with dinosaurs and all this other craziness going on and so it was just a a
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  strange departure for him and so i was intrigued by what this film was really going to do and so you
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  we fast forward to the release or what the film was about to release and we're just riding this high of of of anne hathaway isms you know her her renaissance if you will and
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  i'm like okay man i'm excited for this for if not for anything for anne hathaway you know coming off of the odyssey which I feel is an Academy Award worthy performance there.
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  I'm like,
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  okay,
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  what can she do with this kind of out-the-box science fiction film,
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  you know,
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  where she's a mom and they're running from dinosaurs and whatnot?
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  Man,
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  look,
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  let me tell you.
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  This was probably the second most fun I had in the theater this year.
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  The third.
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  The third most fun
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  I'll have in the theater this year so far.
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  You know,
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  Spider-Man and the...
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  furious being the other two times this was a fun summer movie just in time to end the summer you know this was everything i remember as a kid growing up going to the movies in the summertime and just
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  enjoying these these type of films this kind of adventure type setting this survival setting and it was everything i remembered from the
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  emblem era of steven spielberg and his productions and it reminded me of the goonies it reminded me of back to the future it reminded me of uh et it reminded me of jurassic park of course it reminded me of all of those films this was like the perfect homage to steven spielberg this
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  was a love letter to steven spielberg i don't think spielberg has made a good love letter to himself like
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  this is is weird you know i i really enjoyed this film the more than i expected and you know like i said in previous reviews i'm i'm learning to damper my expectations going into films and i went into this one with moderate
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  expectations and it exceeded it it's well directed by david robert mitchell i i thought he did an excellent job with the pacing of this movie with
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  uh setting up not only the family that we're going to follow here with ann hathaway and ewan mcguiger and their children but also the rest of the neighborhood and we're pretty much uh introduced to them
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  thoroughly in the first 10 to 15 minutes you know it really flushed it out in an interesting way to keep you engaged you weren't sitting there waiting like oh man when we gonna get to the dinosaurs no it was very well paced and uh interesting you know story-wise there's drama there you know with between Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor's characters and you're
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  intrigued by that story you're intrigued by the children's story what's going on in their lives you know
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  the neighbors and what's going on in their lives.
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  It's not hopped upon too long,
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  you know,
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  like this was taking center stage of the story.
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  It was just there to give you an idea of who these people are and what they're all about.
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  That way,
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  when they're going through the terror and mayhem that's taking place later on in this film,
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  you feel it.
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  You feel it for every single...
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  character uh speaking of characters man i gotta start off with anne hathaway you know once again i know i've been beating on that drum for feels like this entire review but anne hathaway really impressed me here impressed me more here than in the odyssey now
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  with that being said the odyssey was the better performance but she impressed me more in this film reason being
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  she didn't mail this in this wasn't a paycheck movie this could have easily been a paycheck movie for her and ewan mcgregor but that's not the sense i got i thought she really gave her all she had to carry a heavy load throughout the majority of this movie she really is the star of this film and
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  goes through the most interesting arc throughout the film uh once we get to the end of the film you follow we were following her throughout and she did an
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  awesome job here the emotional moments the the angry moments the the argumental moments you know all everything that her character goes through you really feel it in and i'm
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  not gonna say any no other actors could have done this yeah of course they probably could have but she did a phenomenal job to whereas i believed her as this character uh ewan mcgregor
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  Also was great as the husband and the father of the children.
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  I thought he played a real supportive role.
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  And I'm not saying that in a negative way.
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  He is supportive in his film.
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  He gets second billing,
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  but he's not the star of this movie.
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  We're not following him.
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  He's not the main protagonist in this movie.
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  But he really sits there and gives a lot.
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  to all of his co-stars especially to anne hathaway's character you know he he is there for support no matter what it is you know literally and figuratively if you've seen the film i thought he carried it well uh the children in here were fine you know they
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  were fine uh they didn't blow my socks off you know they they they were what they were i i didn't uh i'm not gonna to see him.
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  sitting back looking at him like man i can't see what's next for these for these youngsters no they didn't they didn't get me there but i think they did the job you know uh the best they could the best they could uh michael uh gina chino's score uh was it
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  knocked this movie out the park it elevated this movie to a completely different level i'll say that the score
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  in this film probably made it 10 times better than what the film really is because the movie is good but it's not great but the score was great which kind of makes the film you know elevates the film just
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  past that that that that middle tier you know what i'm saying so it's i love michael genichino he is probably one of my favorite but he is one of them but he's probably
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  inching up to be my favorite at this point you know i i can listen to any score that he does uh composes for a film you know his spider-man brand new day score was very very interesting the way he switched it up so
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  i i really really really appreciate his work on this film the visual effects were were amazing i i'm watching this movie and i'm like man
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  These are better looking,
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  this is probably the best looking dinosaurs since
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  Jurassic Park The Lost World.
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  No kidding.
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  I really enjoyed the look of these dinosaurs.
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  They especially historically accurate looking,
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  you know,
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  the raptors had feathers on them.
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  And,
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  you know,
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  ever since the original Jurassic Park film,
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  paleontologists and scientists of all kinds have said that,
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  OK,
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  they were cool looking.
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  But actually,
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  we think that raptors had.
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  feathers because they got hollow bones or whatever however they said it who knows who was around
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  60 million years ago to point it out accurately but uh according to their studies they had feathers on them and they put them on these particular raptors and dinosaurs the t-rex looked pretty i think he had feathers too you
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  know all that all that was great looking uh uh the me.
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  i don't know what you call the thing i'm not a paleontologist but this big old eel spider bull constrictor just giant thing that was probably the freakiest looking thing in this movie uh in the most uh terrifying
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  looking thing in this film speaking of terrifying uh this being the director of it follows the terror was there he did that well we know he can do that well.
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  And he did that in spades here.
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  I really didn't expect it to be that terrifying.
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  This was a very scary movie at points.
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  You know,
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  the claustrophobic feel when our characters were trapped in a room or trapped in a car or trapped in whatever situation they were in.
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  And these dinosaurs or creatures were trying to get in.
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  You really felt it.
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  You know,
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  the way the camera was placed.
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  uh the acting from our uh actors in those scenes were like oh my god what did what are they gonna do i started sweating and i'm really i was i was nervous man it did there were scenes where we saw people in the neighborhood just getting demolished
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  by these dinosaurs and and they didn't they didn't shy away from it you know there's no blood and guts or anything like that but
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  it was close to it you know they did everything up to that point and that's that's when we didn't get to see the blood and stuff but you didn't need to see it you got the point with some of these deaths that take place on oak street and
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  to finish off my positives here my number one impressive element of the end of oak street was the humor the humor worked and now it isn't a lot I'll be in here.
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  there's not a lot of humor but when we get humorous moments they land they really do land and they come at the most uh i guess you could say convenient time for the audience you know who's watching because
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  it'll come right after a terrifying scene or horrific death or something of that nature and it was it was just well placed and worked worked you
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  and it broke the levity of everything i thought that was a genius by the filmmakers there uh going with my negatives i don't have too many about the end of oak street other than the fact that uh i said the humor works but there are a couple of
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  moments where i laughed and i don't think i was supposed to i don't think it was supposed to come off as humorous but it did with me and that could be a a personal thing i don't know you know i'm not really gonna blame
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  the film too much on that and the ending the ending of this movie logically doesn't make sense now if you want to really break down logic we're talking about a movie what that has wormholes in an entire neighborhood gets transported into uh the past but i'm
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  i'm talking like the rules of everything i don't know if and i don't want to spoil the ending you
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  So
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  I'm trying to tiptoe around it,
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  but it's just the ending was,
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  it didn't make sense to me.
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  I didn't,
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  I didn't like it.
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  I'll put it like,
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  I just did not like the ending.
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  Now,
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  was it a satisfying ending in the grand scheme of it all?
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  Yeah,
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  I guess,
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  you know,
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  I guess it wrapped up nice.
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  I don't,
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  I don't,
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  I'm just going to leave it alone.
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  But just know that.
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  the ending just didn't work for me.
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  You know,
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  uh,
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  one day I'll do a spoiler and we're,
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  once the movie gets further down the line and I feel everybody been seen it,
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  then I'll talk about it,
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  but I can't,
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  I can't spoil the end.
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  Uh,
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  but,
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  overall overall other than that i was satisfied even with the bad ending and normally normally the ending will would kill a movie for me a movie could be great and the end didn't be bad and i'll forget this movie i sat here all this time for that you know it but i didn't i didn't walk away feeling that way with
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  the end of oak street i really was satisfied you know it wasn't a bad end i just didn't like it
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  That was...
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  And I'll leave it at that.
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  The end of Oak Street gets a letter grade of a B+.
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  Yeah,
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  it's a fun,
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  throwback,
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  nostalgic,
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  summer blockbuster movie.
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  It's,
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  it's,
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  I'm telling you,
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  if you're around my age in your mid to late 40s,
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  and you remember going to the theater to go see those Spielberg produced and directed films and enjoyed them,
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  man.
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  you know uh still hold them all in high regard this will probably tickle your pickle this is the film for you just in time to squeeze in at the end of the summer but i would love to know your thoughts did you enjoy the end of oak street do you plan to see the end of oak street or you just didn't like the end of oak street i would love to know your thoughts head
• 16:35
  on over to the kb radio network
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  dot com where you can subscribe to the website where you can be notified of new episodes dropping on the site as well as listen to previous episodes from this podcast don't forget about youtube subscribe to the kb radio network channel and like this video if you don't mind don't forget about the five stars the reviews and sharing the show if you're listening on apple podcast spotify iHeartRadio,
• 17:05
  wherever you are currently listening.
• 17:08
  to the concession stand here on the kb radio network everybody thank you for joining me for this review of the end of oak street want you all to know that i love you continue to love everyone and until we speak again you
• 17:24
  all be blessed