Hook (1991)

I have many fond memories of watching this movie as kid. It might be the first time I can specifically recall being really and deeply intrigued by Robin Williams. I also recall my family watching this movie many times. That was not something that was uncommon in our household (my youngest brother watched either ET (1982) or Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) daily for years. It's also safe to say that in my teenage years I watched So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) hundreds of times. At one point I could recite nearly entire movie from memorie, certainly my siblings and I could exchange the entire movie. But I digress. I have a specific memory related to this film. I also remember that when this came out on VHS my family was renting movies from Blockbuster on a regular occassion. We recorded a large number of movies off of TV as well. We had multiple VCR's in the house and I seem to remember my parents sometimes renting one movie for the older kids/adults, and a kids movie. Hook made a regular appearance. More specifically, I remember my Dad and a couple of my siblings setting up the VCR's to record a copy of this to VHS tape when we rented it once. I don't recall why I chose this moment as a moment to assert morals, but I recall telling my Dad very specifically that I didn't feel good about them recording the movie that way. I also remember the look on his face. We did not record our own copy from the rental copy either. My parents did eventually purchase a copy and it was in regular rotation in our home. I would have been oblivious to director's at this stage in my life, but this was directed by the venerable Steven Spielberg with an estimated budget of $70,000,000. There were big, household, names in this movie but even then that was a big budget. The budget shows in some of the sets and how many takes some of the scenes would have required. Everyone also has great costumes. The movie stars Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook. It also stars Robin Williams as Peter Banning, AKA Peter Pan. Julie Roberts is Tinkerbell, in what might be the oddest casting in the movie. Bob Hoskins plays Smee, Maggie Smith is Granny Wendy, Caroline Goodall plays Moira Banning, Charlie Korsmo plays Jack Banning, and Amber Scott plays Maggie Banning. There are some wonderful cameos in the movie as well. The kissing couple on the bridge who begin to float when fairy dust lands on them as Tinkerbelle takes the unconscious Peter back to Neverland were George Lucas and Carrie Fisher. Gutless, the male bearded pirate who is locked in the "Boo Box" with scorpions, was played by Glenn Close. Dustin Hoffman's three children also make appearances in the movie. The movie tells the story of an adult Peter Banning who has lost his way, with his family and has forgotten about Neverland and the Lost Boys. While visiting family in England, Peter is taken back to Neverland along with his kids. While there, Peter must discover his past and reconcile with his children. One of the things I really appreciate about this movie is that it really didn't shy away from difficult things. The death of Rufio (Dante Basco) is depicted, just minus blood. It still shows him getting stabbed by Hook though. There's certainly concessions to get it's PG rating (something I assume Disney tightly controlled), but it depicted things more realistically than many kids movies. It has sword fights, people walking the plank, torture, other infighting, the big battle with the pirates, and Robin kissing Tinkerbelle. Obviously the gore is left out of those but they are depicted such that it wouldn't incentivise kids to replicate some of the acts. It was also simply a different age. The movie had some mixed reviews and carries a metacritic rating of just 52. It has an IMDb aggragate rating of 6.8 stars. Personally, I think this movie is underrated and I give it 8 out of 10 *'s. There are some stories about the less fun sides of the making of this movie. According to the trivia section of IMDb, Julia Roberts was referred to as "Tinker Hell" on set because of difficulties with some of the green screen work. Steven Spielberg had issues with the children in the cast. Steven Spielberg has been quoted as saying that some of the difficulties had nearly tainted his opinion of the movie. However, he has also said that he is glad he made it as it was the start of his friendship with Robin Williams. There are reports that after hearing of Williams death, Speilberg pulled this movie out to watch and remember Williams. However, Speilberg found himself unable to finish the movie and cried for hours. A wonderful film that I hope others also remember fondly as well.