Movie Defense Force: Hook

[Khanht Cope]

I didn't see it until several years later on VHS when I was maybe 10 or so. Could well be younger.

Even though I couldn't pick up on many of the underlying critical nuances of the film; I always recalled that the early scenes with the damage in the house were strikingly well-directed and quite unnerving. However, the bulk of the film struggled to 'hit' for me at that age. I remember consciously thinking even then, that I was conflicted in my impression of whether the movie was decent or terrible; when you generally sit back unquestioningly with movies at those ages; until the later stages, and I settled on "pretty good" as the credits rolled.

I was basically waiting for him to become Peter Pan again, sooner rather than later, and found most of the rest of the film irrelevant fluff. I remember being really excited when he became Peter Pan again, and enjoyed that stage of the movie. But even recalling being someone with under-developed critical skills, any time Julia Roberts/Tinker Bell were on screen couldn't end soon enough, and Rufio's death was enough of a pointless dick move to stick out to me.

Surprised to hear it got panned. I assumed the consensus was that it was at least serviceable.

 

[Chaos Marine]

Hook was lambasted? Really? I thought it was a great movie when I was a kid and I've watched it numerous cousins, sister and family members.

[Edit] I was nine two decades ago.

 

[crazyburnerboy8]

Bangarang !!

 

[josh4president]

Just had to go check Rotten Tomatoes to make sure Jim didn't make a mistake:

Hook (1991) - 31%

Thirty-one percent.

Let's turn this into a game, shall we?

First, go to Hook's Rotten Tomatoes page.

Then take a look at some of the films whose score is significantly higher than that and see how long you can prevent yourself from choking on your own rage.

Enjoy!

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Hook was my childhood. I really loved this film when I was a kid and although as an adult I recognize it's faults (like Tinkerbell literally growing up and never mentioning it ever again) I still highly enjoy it as a guilty pleasure, to this day, it's still one of the best "The Chosen Zero" (according to TV Tropes) films I've ever seen.

Also, how can you not love Rufio in all his 90's glory?

You mean Prince Zuko from Avatar: TLA? Of course you can't help but love it.

 

[Lo Flying Frying Pan]

As oft as this film is quoted by myself and my friends, I'm absolutely dumbfounded to discover this film was "panned."

This was a staple of my youth and I have nothing but golden memories of it. I sit with the kids and put this on, and I watch their eyes just glow at the aforementioned art-styles and imagination. A factor of the current trend for CGI-laden material has left them absolutely startled by the "fidelity" of elaborate stages and backdrops. Granted I'm putting my grasp of words to their wonder, but it's obvious enough witnessing them witness Hook. Thanks for defending this film.

Praise to Jim, hero of the downtrodden and under-appreciated!

 

[BehattedWanderer]

This was thoroughly surprising. I didn't realize there were people who didn't like Hook.

Seriously, how is that even possible?

It gave us BANGARANG and Rufio, ffs.

I still love it. Watch it every few months.

"Death is the only adventure you have left!" "To die would be a great adventure."

Fucking. Gold.

 

[Master_Fubar23]

Ah, I love this video ^_^

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I remember the significant blanketing of merchandising that came out with the movie. Seriously, entire aisles dedicated to it.

I liked Hook, I think it's pretty good.

 

[drschplatt]

Haha, I'm glad Jim made the comment at the end because I was about to rush in to comment with a "Why the f*k does this need defending? It's a top 25 movie!"


Well played, Jim. Well played.

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well, this is one of those movies where you have to again take into account what it was in competition with at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan_and_the_Pirates

From 1990 to 1991 Fox had launched their own Peter Pan cartoon show which was pretty popular at the time, and was known for having a very Hook-centric set up where he and the pirates were given as much screen time and focus as Peter Pan and company, not to mention being made considerably more formidable seeming than the impression you'd get from some of the other versions of Pere Pan that came along before them. This version of Captain Hook was voiced by none other than Tim Curry, who is himself kind of a big deal when it comes to memorable, over the top performances.

In short "Hook" seemed to largely get upstaged, while it's true that "Hook" saw planning going back as far as the 1980s or before, the youth of the time and nostalgia seeking parents for that particular 15 minutes had their own image of what this should be like, minus the goofy baggage of a middle aged Robin Williams being Peter Pan.

This is similar to other points I've brought up before, like with why "Alien 3" got trashed as badly as it did (comics which were well known at the time to franchise fans did it better).

That said, it is very true that "Hook" is not a bad movie, it did what it set out to do well, and it had lavish production values. It just had the misfortune of being a comedic sequel to a not-so serious story that came out in exactly the 15 minutes where the 1990s has birthed it's own version of Peter Pan which has replaced the Disney version "Hook" was largely leaning on in people's minds.

That said, I think Oz, Wonderland, Never Never Land and the like have oftentimes suffered from being prisoners of their own material. There is a lot that could be done with this sort of surrealistic fantasy, based largely on how people decades ago thought a child's mind might work, but for the most part I don't think most writers really want to take it in the right directions, and oftentimes it turns into little more than an exercise for writers and actors to re-interpet characters and put their own stamp on them, and that becomes the focus more than anything. Sort of like how Tim Burton's Oz pretty much turned into Johnny Depp and Helena Botham Carter trying to one up each other in terms of quirkiness at the expense of the storyline.... but that's just my thoughts.

I echo the whole "I'm not sure if this needs defending" thing myself, after all this movie staying around, being re-released on DVD and Blu-Ray, and the whole nine yards speaks volumes. Defending it against the critics of yesterday is kind of pointless when the environment is so different. You can't see things the way they did right now, as what is arguably a not-very-well remembered Cartoon wouldn't hold up the way it did at the time.

 

[likalaruku]

The ONLY think I disliked about this movie was the part where Peter Pan regains his memory. I think Robin Williams is a good serious actor, but his comedy is abysmal. I feel the opposite way about Tom Hanks; he should have stuck with comedies.

 

[Ishigami]

Never knew this movie was disliked. ? The more you know?
Where I was in 1991? Elementary school.
Not that it would matter much. Today everyone can easily propagandize his opinion about stuff but back then? There was no internet or social network sites for the common households.
So any opinion you had probably stayed within your circle of friends and that?s about it.

 

[faefrost]

Hook isn't a bad movie. It's one that I happily have on my guilty pleasures list. Some parts of it are fantastic. Hoffman and Hoskins as Hook and Smee. The wonderful Pirate setting. The wonderful feel to the London scenes. John William's wonderful score (which in many ways presaged his equally wonderfully Harry Potter themes.) Robin William's classic man child schtick worked fairly well as Pan.

But the movie is not without it's flaws. The above mentioned scenes, locales and themes give the movie a very timeless quality, which is then utterly destroyed when we meet the Lost Boys. Most of the Lost Boy's cast is fantastic and pretty well captures a timeless almost Dickensian quality. But the art direction, set design and setup of the Lost Boy's sets just screams everything cliched and annoying about the 90's. And then we come to Rufio. Ugh! Yeah I know he has some fans. But geez! So much of the movie has that nice holiday classic timeless or era less feel to it, that running into Rufio is just jarring. He's like the audiences first encounter with Jar Jar Binks in the Phantom Menace. Your mind starts screaming "One of these things does not belong...".

 

[Pebkio]

You know which 90s movie that could use some defending? Tank Girl. I liked Tank Girl (the movie, not the character so much) because it was just silly fun.

 

[Gilhelmi]

Mandatory RU-FI-O! RU-FI-O! RU-FI-O! RU-FI-OOOOOOO!

ZU-KO, ZU-KO, ZU-KO, ZU-KO, ZUKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender) is the same actor. Still an amazing actor 20 years later.

 

[BunnyKillBot]

The missus and I both love hook, and i have made the exact same comment about the wonderful sets and absence of jarring CGI. I actually think lazy CGI has allot to answer for for ruining movies for me and celebrate this era for its artistic audacity.

Hook also contains my one piece of pub quiz geek knowledge, ''in what film do george lucas and carrie fisher share a cameo onscreen kiss?' Hook!

 

[Lieju]

I seem to recall that there was a lot of hype for that movie before it came out, so it probably suffered from unrealistic expectations.

I remember liking it, though.

 

[Rabidkitten]

I thought hook sucked, and still do.