Hook movie, review, plot, cast, crew, trivia, awards and quotes
Celebrity HOME Celeb Gallery Celeb Profiles Celeb Birthdays Movie Reviews Album Reviews  
Search



          

Always Hot
Gerard Butler
Madonna
Anastacia
Top Cards
Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Today's Celebrity
Diane Neal
Diane Neal
Celebrity B'day
Check out, with which celebrity U share your birthday.
 
Cool Tools
Celebrity Gallery
Celebrity Profiles
Celebrity Birthdays
Movie Reviews
Album Reviews
     CelebCards :  Movies :   Hook  
Movie Name: Hook
Casting By: Dustin Hoffman - Capt. Hook
Robin Williams - Peter Banning
Released: December 13, 1991
Genre: Action, adventure
Runtime: 144 minutes
Rating: PG
Director(s): Steven Spielberg
Producer(s): Frank Marshall, Gerald R. Molen
Writer(s): J.M. Barrie (book), James V. Hart, Nick Castle
Distribution: TriStar Pictures
U.S. Box Office:
Country: USA
Language: English
  Hook
Movie Review
 

Hook is a 1991 family action/adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins and Maggie Smith. The film is based on J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and acts as a sequel to the events in the novel, focusing on a grown-up Peter Pan who has forgotten his childhood.

Successful lawyer Peter Banning (Williams) has become so engrossed in his work that he has lost touch with his wife Moira (Caroline Goodall) and his children Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and Maggie (Amber Scott). The family travels to London to visit Granny Wendy Darling (Smith), Moira's grandmother, who also raised Peter and other orphans. While the adults are at a dinner banquet honoring Wendy and her work, Jack and Maggie are kidnapped, with the only clue being a dagger-bearing note signed "JAS Hook, Captain", informing Peter that his presence is necessary to retrieve his children. Peter does not accept Wendy's assertions that this is caused by the real Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) and that he himself is the real Peter Pan. He instead gets drunk that night, and is dragged to Neverland by the fairy Tinkerbell (Roberts) after an argument.

Peter then wakes up and is in a pirate port. He walks around and is stopped by a group of pirates trying to steal his shoes, but Tinkerbell saves him and helps him acquire a disguise. He observes a speech by Hook, revealing his plan of having Peter's children as bait, and Peter reveals himself. Hook is disgusted at his nemesis' physical condition, but Tinkerbell convinces Hook to allow Peter three days to re-train him. Peter eventually ends up in the Lost Boys' treetop village, where at first none of the Boys think that he is the real Peter Pan, especially Rufio, the current leader. Eventually, the Lost Boys do believe, and help re-train Peter, especially hampered by his inability to fly.

Back on the Jolly Roger, Hook and Smee attempt to convince Peter's children that their parents never loved them. Although Maggie does not fall for the ploy, the oft-scorned Jack listens, and with the added effect of a pirate baseball game, comes to take Hook somewhat as an adoptive father. Peter is hit in the head by a home run Jack hit, and as a result, eventually finds a tree house where Wendy and her brothers once lived. He soon finds himself flying with his new-found "happy thought": being a father, the reason he left Neverland.

Peter returns to give Hook the battle he demanded; the Lost Boys eventually join in the melee. Rufio unwisely challenges Hook to a duel, where he is killed, but not before telling Peter that he wishes he had a father like Peter. Peter, having rescued his children, wants to leave without a fight, but realizing that Hook will not stop, consents again to the duel, which ends when the crocodile tower seemingly comes back to life and swallows Hook, and shortly after it belches loudly. When it is time for the Bannings to return home, Peter passes on his sword and the leadership to one of the Lost Boys, and flies back to London with his children. When he awakes he is back in London in his regular clothes outside the house, and sees Tinkerbell one last time. She asks him if he believes in fairies and replies that he still does, she then leaves. Peter then comes back to the house proving to his family that they are more important than his work. Peter then gives Tootles his missing marbles he got from one of the Lost Boys. Upon receiving them, Tootles remembers his "happy thought" and flies away into the distance.

The film is among the worst received film of Steven Spielberg's career. Rotten Tomatoes scores the movie a 22% certified "rotten" rating among 36 critics, alhough users give it a "fresh" rating of 71%. IGN's Steven Spielberg Featured Filmmaker article notes:

"This is the one Spielberg film that I simply cannot watch. To do so pains me. Literally, I feel sick. It's a meandering, emotionless, wretched mess of a film containing a whole gaggle of characters that are in no way made appealing throughout the entirety of the film."

Despite being critically panned, the film was financially successful and managed to gross $119,654,900 in the U.S.A. (subtotal)

During the casting process for the film, Joseph Mazzello was trying out for the part of Peter Pan but Spielberg thought he was too young. He made a promise with Joseph that he would be in another movie. Spielberg later put him in Jurassic Park as Tim Murphy.

Shooting began on February 19, 1991, and was completed on May, 1991.

Tom Hanks and Kevin Kline were originally considered to play Peter Pan.

The role of Captain Hook was offered to Robert DeNiro and David Bowie.

Due to Dustin Hoffman being regarded as a difficult actor to work with directors, there was a sense of tension on set between him and Spielberg. As a joke during filming, Hoffman and Bob Hoskins added a homosexual subtext between Captain Hook and Smee, much to Spielberg's horror.

After leaving for Paris with Jason Patric two weeks before principal photography began, Julia Roberts was set to be replaced by Michelle Pfeiffer. In a 60 Minutes interview, Spielberg stated that he would never again work with Julia Roberts, and to this day he has kept his word.

Uncredited George Lucas and Carrie Fisher portray the kissing couple when Tinkerbell carries Peter into Neverland.

The popular pop-punk band Rufio takes its name from the lost boy of the same name.

The family flies to England on Pan Am. Coincidentally, Pan Am had already ceased operations just a week before the movie was released.

When the Bannings fly to England, the pilot's voice is that of Dustin Hoffman.

Glenn Close also makes an appearance on Captain Hook's ship as a male pirate who doubted Hook's ability to capture Pan's children. This results in her character being tortured inside the 'Boo Box'; a pirate chest with scorpions inside of it.

Maggie Smith who plays Granny Wendy has done stage work as Peter Pan on stage (since the part usually goes to a young woman by theater tradition).

An elderly Tootles is one of the characters in the film, and is referred to as Wendy's "first orphan". Tootles was one of the original Lost Boys. In the book, all the original Lost Boys had been adopted by Mr. Darling (Wendy's father), though none of the others have roles in the film besides Tootles.

In both the book and film, Wendy greets Peter by calling him "Boy".

Granny Wendy recites a prayer-like speech as she leaves Maggie and Jack in the nursery, asking the lights to guard the sleeping babes. This is a reference to the book, in which Mrs. Darling says, "Night-lights are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children." (Chapter 2: The Shadow)

When Tinkerbell is first trying to get Peter to remember her, she says, "I drank poison for you!" This is a direct reference to the events in the book. (Chapter 13: Do You Believe in Fairies?)

The invisible dinner sequence is inspired by the lines in the book: "The difference between (Peter) and the other boys at such a time was that they knew it was make-believe, while to him make-believe and true were exactly the same thing. This sometimes troubled them, as when they had to make-believe that they had had their dinners." (Chapter 6: The Little House)

After human-sized Tinkerbell kisses Peter, and he remembers he has to save his children, Tink says to him, "You silly ass, Go!" In the book, Tinkerbell repeatedly calls Peter a "silly ass".

A number of lines in the film's dialogue are directly lifted from the book. Among them are:
"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousands pieces and they went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies." In the film this is recited by Granny Wendy and Maggie Banning. In the book it is spoken by Peter to Wendy. (Chapter 3: Come Away, Come Away!)
"I can’t come with you. I have forgotten how to fly. I’m old, Peter. Ever so much more than twenty. I grew up a long time ago." Spoken by an aged Wendy to Peter in both the film and book.
"Strike, Peter. Strike true" In the film this is spoken by a defeated Hook to Peter. In the book it is spoken by a guilty Tootles to Peter. (Chapter 6: The Little House)

Some of the dialogue are modifications of lines in the novel, such as:
When Peter confronts Hook for the final battle at the end of the film, they say: "Peter Pan, prepare to meet thy doom." "Dark and sinister man, have at thee." This exchange is almost directly lifted from the book, Chapter 15: Hook or Me This Time, the original line being: "Proud and insolent youth, prepare to meet thy doom." "Dark and sinister man, have at thee."
During the duel between Peter and Hook, Hook says "Thus perished Peter Pan". This is a flip of the original line "Thus perished Jas. Hook", which is from Chapter 15: Hook or Me This Time.
Peter's quote in the movie "to die will be an awfully big adventure" refers to a line in the book. (Chapter 8: the Mermaid's Lagoon). Though the original line is spoken by Hook when he attempts suicide.

In the movie, when Hook listens to Maggie singing, he is holding a strange cigar holder which branches out into two cigars. Hook has such a device in the book.

In the movie, Hook repeatedly talks about "Good Form" and "Bad Form!". In the book, Hook thinks about this after he has captured the lost boys.

Toward the end of the movie, Tootles says "I've missed the adventure again, haven't I, Peter?" This is in reference to the book, as it is mentioned that the reason Tootles was so humble was because, by some misfortune, he missed most of the adventures the Lost Boys participated in.

The score for Hook was composed and conducted by John Williams. As in many of his fantasy-adventure scores, Williams makes extensive use of leitmotifs (musical themes related to characters, emotions and actions), using one or more themes in each song to describe on-screen story and interaction. In fact, Hook may have one of the most leitmotivically-dense scores of all time, with some 20 odd autonomous melodic ideas recurring through the movie. An incomplete sample, just from the officially released soundtrack, which omits about half of the written score:

"Prologue" (Hook/Pan confrontation theme/Peter Pan theme #1)
"We Don't Want To Grow Up" (Tinkerbell theme) *
"Banning Back Home"
"Granny Wendy" (Childhood theme, Wendy's theme)
"Hook-Napped" (Prologue Theme, James T. Hook theme)
"The Arrival of Tink and the Flight to Neverland" (Tinkerbell, Childhood)
"Presenting the Hook" (Pirate theme, Captain Hook theme)
"From Mermaids to Lost Boys" (Mermaid theme, Neverland Theme, Lost Boys)
"The Lost Boy Chase" (Lost Boys theme #1)
"Smee's Plan" (Smee and Hook theme)
"The Banquet" (Lost Boys theme #2)
"The Never-Feast" (Lost Boys #2, Childhood, When You're Alone)
"Remembering Childhood" (Children, Childhood, Neverland, Prologue)
"You are the Pan" (Pan Theme)
"When You're Alone* (When You're Alone)
"The Ultimate War" (Prologue, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, Hook & Smee, Childhood, Lost Boys 1+2)
"Farewell Neverland" (Neverland, Lost Boys, Wendy, and Tinkerbell themes)
*Tracks 2 and 15: Music composed by John Williams/lyrics written by Leslie Bricusse. "When You're Alone" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song in 1992.

 
Celebrity HOME | Celebrity Gallery | Celebrity Profiles | Celebrity Birthdays | Movie Reviews
Album Reviews | Jokes | Free Dating | Contact Us