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Hook Customer Reviews (34 - 36 of 46 Reviews)

Great film, HORRIBLE DVD
Since there are so many other reviews available, I'll save my opinions on how great this film is and go straight to the DVD review.

First things first, the DVD version of "Hook" offers an increidble 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack that makes a huge difference if you've been getting by on the VHS edition. My room was shaking everytime the cannons went off with my surround sound. As for the picture, Hook has one of the most beautiful video transfers I've ever seen from a film to a disc. There were some absolutely gorgeous scenes of Neverland and spectacular menus.

Unfortunately, like most of Tri-Star's DVDs, this film is absent of extras. You get trailers for Hook and Jumanji, and some lame "Tallent Files" thing it looks like someone pulled off the Internet. That's it. They certainly have room on the disc for more, but I guess they're too lazy. With such a beatuful film transfer, a great director, and so many A-list actors, this DVD would be incredible packed full of featurettes and interviews. But alas, the viewer is resigned to wait until Tri-Star decides to release a REAL edition of this wonderful film on DVD.

A Neverending Magical Fairy Tale
Steven Spielberg's Hook is a wondrous film full of great color and fantastic visuals. It's the kind of warm and fuzzy movie to be enjoyed time and again. Robin Williams stars as a grown up Peter Pan(now named Peter Panning), who doesn't remember who he really is. While on a trip to Old Wendy's place, his two children are kidnapped by Captain Hook. With the help of Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell, Peter has to go to Never Never Land to save his kids, battle Captain Hook, and realize that he is the one and only Peter Pan. The costumes are great, the sets are awe inducing, and the actors are all game. People, I ask you, who is better at playing at a person who refuses to grow up than Robin Williams?. I don't think the part could of been better cast. Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook is an image to behold. It's a classic Hoffman performance. Keep an eye out for cameos by Phil Collins, Glenn Close, and a very young Gwynneth Paltrow. This movie should entertain kids and adults alike. Kids will cherish their youth, while adults will most definitley be transported back to a magical time to think about their own youth. This is a whimsical fairy tale that's a delight from the first to last frame. I can't believe why so many people have a deep disliking of this movie. Oh well. Their loss. Kudos to Spielberg for delivering a modern day fairy tale for viewers to cherish for years to come. I'm hooked!. Sorry.

Spielberg's mistake in "Hook" is that he miscast the film
I was totally enthralled by the dazzling remake of J.M. Barrie's classic story of the boy who did not grow up that came out last year from director P.J. Hogan. So I decided to go back and reconsider Steven Spielberg's 1991 film "Hook." In this version it turns out that Peter Pan did grow up. He fell in love with Wendy's granddaughter, Moira, decided to stay in our world, and does not remember anything that happened before the age of 12. With heavy-handed irony, Peter turns out to be a corporate raider (in other words, a pirate), who not only does not remember what it is like to be a child, he also ignores his own children. However, that all changes when Captain Hook makes his way to Granny Wendy's London home and kidnaps Peter's two children, Jack and Maggie. Tinkerbell shows up to help Peter remember who he is and take him to Never-Land to save the day.

A lot of Spielberg's films deal with the theme of the absent father and clearly a key part of "Hook" is that Peter, the father, remembers not only his true self but his own children. But the film does not provide the sense of magic we expect from Spielberg and I want to make the argument that the problem is not so much the story as it is the casting. You simply cannot have Robin Williams in a movie like this and not expect him to be Robin Williams, which means that several key scenes get spun in a way that is not necessarily in the best interest of the story. Throw into the mix Dustin Hoffman having fun playing Captain Hook, Bob Hoskins having almost as much fun playing Smee, and Julia Roberts as a very talkative Tinkerbell, and you have a lot of star power running around on screen.

The problem for me is what happens to Rufio, King of the Lost Boys, because that event changes the whole equation at play here. Because of what happens Peter cannot let Captain Hook off the hook, yet that is exactly what he does. I suppose it was too much for either Peter Pan or Robin Williams to do what had to be done in those circumstances, but this forces the film to come up with a way to have the right thing happen, albeit it in a comic way, without Peter having to get his hands dirty. Still I came back to what happened to Rufio and as the end game plays out in Never-Land I know in my heart that this is just not right.

The idea that the casting of the principles is off is confirmed for me when we get back to London town. The reaction of Caroline Goodall's Moira when her children come back and Maggie Smith's performance from start to finish as Granny Wendy seem to me to be grounded in the film that this one should have been. If Dame Maggie had been the only recognizable name in this film and the others had been even relative unknowns, then the message in "Hook" might have worked. In other words, this needed to be a Steven Spielberg film and not a Robin Williams movie. There is a lot of power to be mined from Barrie's original story, which is exactly what Hogan proved in creating the best "Peter Pan" movie of them all.

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