Hook 1991 Film Review

Peter Pan is a story that alot of us have grown up be it due to the original book or the 1953 Disney version of the various other versions of the tale. However alot of those films all have one thing in common they never showed what would happen if Peter Pan did the unthinkable and grew up well there was one film in the early nineties that dared to answer that question and that's the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today and so then join me as I review the film whose story was no joke co-written by the original actor to play Michael Myers in the Halloween with the film in question being called simply just "Hook" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when his kids are kidnapped by the pirate Captain Hook and takes them to Neverland a now grown up Peter Pan now going by Peter Banning must try and remember what it was like to be a kid and rescue his kids once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about thew actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with this films plot being both wonderfully adult and yet at the same time delightfully silly as well which is something that is perfect for a Peter Pan film as Peter Pan himself is always a kid at heart and therefor his films should represent that and that's something that this films does wonderfully with it's plot with the makers of the film even doing the smart thing by giving Peter a subplot that is more tied to his adult life as well and while his subplot isn't as good or as interesting as the films main plot it is still something that does work within the main context of the film with the films main plot being where the film gets to be alot more fun and just have fun with it's general concept with the idea of having Peter Pan grow up being being something that really hadn't been explored until now and therefor the film can and does do whatever it wants as there's no set pattern to follow here and that is something that does result in a plot that is wonderfully creative but at the same time tho it would have been nice if the main plot of the film got alot more focus then what it gets in the film as the film does drop it's main plot for a large portion of the films running time which does have the add on effect of making you wonder what the main plot of this film was even meant to be in the first place with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Robin Williams as Peter Banning / Peter Pan and Dustin Hoffman as Captain James Hook and the voice of the Pan Am Pilot's Announcement. Also starring in this film is Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell , Bob Hoskins as William Smee and a Street Sweeper , Dame Maggie Smith as Wendy Darling , Gwyneth Paltrow as Teenage Wendy Darling , Charlie Korsmo as Jack Banning , Amber Scott as Maggie Banning , Caroline Goodall as Moira Banning , Geoffrey Lower as Brad , Dante Basco as Rufio , Jasen Fisher as Ace , Raushan Hammond as Thud Butt , Isaiah Robinson as Pockets , James Madio as Don't Ask , Arthur Malet as Tootles , Laurel Cronin as Liza , Alex Zuckerman as Latchboy , Thomas Tulak as Too Small , Ahmad Stoner as No Nap , Nick Tate as Noodler and Phil Collins as Inspector Good.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. Which given just who is starring in this film is something that's not really all that surprising as alot of this films actors were or still are a bunch of really good actors in their own right and seeing them all act together in this film was just something that was just truly wonderful to see with it being obvious that all of this films actors had a blast making this film as there are scenes in this film were you can see the actors genuine reactions to the amount of fun things that are happening on screen and it is something that does make the film all the more fun to watch with it being really hard to say just who the best actor in this film really is as while Dante Basco is of course really good in this film it does come down to both Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman as both actors are quite clearly having alot of fun playing their respective characters with both of them even having some great chemistry together as well with this being something that makes it hard to say just who the best actor in this film even is in the first place as both actors are just so good in this film and while some of the kid acting is pretty bad that's to be expected in a film featuring kids with the acting that's in this very film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out pf the naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that' in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Industrial Light & Magic. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this much like the films acting not really being all that surprising as Industrial Light & Magic at the time where the kings of CGI with their work always being top notch and it's the same here as all of the effects that they did for the film not only hold up really well these years later but are so good that you can see why this film was nominated for best visual effects at thew 1991 Academy Awards as there just that good and while yes you can tell alot of the time when the makers of this film are using matte paintings and when there not but when they get this films effects right they really do get it right with it being really hard to fault any of their flying effects in this film as they all look so good and while the effects on Peter's shadow do look a little bit off that could also be the point as it's a shadow and so of course it's not going to be as smooth as the rest of him will be with the shadow itself appearing to be 2D hand drawn which doesn't look the best but at the same time tho it could very easily have been some very early CGI work done for it which still doesn't look that good but if that is the case then it would explain why the shadow doesn't look the best when it's moving by itself as the makers of the film just wouldn't have had the technology there to make his shadow look good as they possibly could have done.

This film was of course directed by the great Steven Spielberg with this film being one of the films of his that he doesn't like. As he thought that while the scenes in London where really good it's the scenes in Neverland that he hates the most as he didn't like how they did the stylized Neverland set and has said that if he was doing the film today he would have had the Neverland set be completely digital and have live action actors which I think would be a huge mistake as then you run the risk of making the film look like a live cartoon basically whereas with a live action set everything just looks and feels more real with the live action set even serving as a contrast to the real world as in the real world especially in the London set scenes they use alot of blues and greys to emphasize not only how cold it is there but also the fact that Peter has grown up and is a grumpy old man where as when we get to Neverland there's a lot of bright colors that just pop everywhere with there even being alot of warm colors as well thus making that world as deadly as it could be alot of the time be alot more inviting which is the whole point of Neverland as it's meant to be this warm and inviting place that makes you want to stay there and that is something that could be lost if the set was fully digital as it would loose that realness to it that makes it stand out and that makes look like a kids imagination come to life as that's what Neverland should look like it should this hyper stylized world that has lots of bright colors and by making that set fully digital that run the risk of being lost as it would just be another set for the characters to be in and not something that the characters would want to stay in.

Whilst it would be very easy to see this film as nothing more then just another Peter Pan story which would be fair enough. It's also something alot more then that as it's at it's heart a story about a father and son coming together as it's the subplot with Jack and Peter that really does motivate the whole film with Peter no showing one of Jacks baseballs games once to often thus breaking Jack's trust and so over the course of the film Peter has to do whatever he can to win that trust back and prove to his son that he can be there for him not only when he has to be like on holidays and other such things but when he wants to be as well much like how Jack has to learn that despite all of the evidence to the contrary Peter really does love him and Maggie so much so that Peter's one true happy thought is of off Jack with that being something that you don't really get to see in other Peter Pan adaptations with the closest we got was in Peter Pan & Wendy where it was about Hook missing his mother but that's really it but here it works because of the fact that we get to see them go through struggles with the only thing that lets this subplot down is the fact that once we get to Neverland the characters of Peter and Jack don't really share a scene together where it's just the two of them as that could have lead to a scene where they have a big blowout moment between the two of them which is something that this subplot really do need as they came back together as a family unit a bit to quickly when it would have been more earned if we saw them have that big blowout moment before hand but to be fair tho Jack gets the gold star treatment as Maggie just straight up disappears from the film so much so that it would be understandable if people forgot that he even had a daughter in the first place.

Outside of Pan and Hook himself the film does have one other character that's really well known that being Rufio. With him basically being a more rebellious and angry version of Peter Pan with his story actually being a sad one once you take the prequel short film Bangarang into account as in that film he leaves his mother when he finds out that she's being deported and he's being put into care with him promising to see her again which we now know due to the fact that he dies in this film he never got to do in the first place but the fact that that film has alot of modern technology in it that just wouldn't have been around in the nineties does call into question if that short film is meant to be canon to this film or not but either way it was seeing a character outside of Pan who could go toe to toe with Hook and hold their own for a good long while and someone who could get The Lost Boys under somewhat control whilst still being this kind of rebellious character who is just mad at the world not because he wants to be but because he has to be which is something that Hook himself could have taken advantage of in their fight in the end to have him loose focus but doesn't. Which is something that is perfectly fitting with this version of the character as the Hook that we meet in this film is kind of a showoff and kind of an airhead at the same time in that he has all of these fancy things and heck he even has a red carpet role out of him whenever he wants to it but at the same time he's not afraid to be goofy and silly and bit forgetful either which is something that does work for his character as he does still have this side to him that's alot more smart with him using the insecurities that Jack has with father against him and uses it as a way to gain his trust which is a really smart move for him to make.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and twenty one minuets and forty five seconds. Which to be fair to this film is pretty solid running time for this film to have but in saying that tho this film was a bit on the long side especially for what is basically a kids action film with the film having more then enough there interms of plot however tho whilst the film does use it's running time wisely in one respect it doesn't use it wisely when it comes to developing it's main plot as the plot of the film as good as it is does kind of stop and start alot of the time even when the character are in Neverland with it feeling like that the film is trying to fit in to much stuff rather then just focusing on being a good plot in it's own right as the film has to tell the subplot between Jack and Peter as well as the main plot but then it also has to fit in what is basically a training montage and sort of side plot for Tinker Bell as well which does feel a bit like over kill and it is something that could have been trimmed down alot in the editing process just to make the film really alot more manageable despite it still being a very easy film to watch however tho this is something that thankfully doesn't really effect the films main characters as the film does give alot of the characters alot of character development be it Rufio learning to accept that Pan really is back and give up his power over The Lost Boys or Peter learning that it's OK to be childish and silly sometimes either way alot of the films characters really do get very well developed in this film with the only exception being Maggie who really gets forgotten about for large portions of the film and when she is on screen she does nothing that's actually important to the films plot but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.  

So now then as this an action film that really does mean that I have t actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty i in all honesty personally tought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With it being clear as day that as much as the makers film leaned into it's comedy aspect by having Robin Williams be his usual charming self only played up to eleven with him cracking jokes at every possibly chance that he gets with it being the films action tho that really does sell you on the fact that he is Peter Pan as he really does look the part during this films action scenes with it also being made clear as day that this is where this films director Steven Spielberg really did put alot more thought and effort during this films action scenes then he did in any of other Neverland set scenes as it's during this films action that the film becomes alot more fun to watch with the best of example of this also oddly enough being n what is the films best action which is quite easily the final battle between The Lost Boys and Peter Pan ad Hook and his pirates which is just such a fun sequence and given just how much gooey stuff that the The Lost Boy use during that sequence it does make you wonder if it was a fun for all of them to film as it appears on screen with part of makes that sequence fun to watch being the fact that not only do we get to see Peter and Hook go at it at a really good sword fight but we also get to see all of The Lost Boys take on Hooks pirate crew as well which is something that does make the whole thing feel alot more bigger then what it already is with the only thing that lets is the fact that the Pan and Hooks sword fight does go for a bit to long in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall this is a film that can best be described as fun as that's exactly what it is it's fun in all of the best ways possible with this being a film that's so bad it's good as it's those things that make the film that also make it good again as this is a film that's designed to make you feel like a kid all over again in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and a such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Peter Pan fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.