Hook (1991)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
The boy who wasn't supposed to grow up—Peter Pan—does just that, becoming a soulless corporate lawyer whose workaholism could cost him his wife and kids. During his trip to see Granny Wendy in London, the vengeful Capt. Hook kidnaps Peter's kids and forces Peter to return to Neverland.
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17 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Hook to
This story, inspired by Carroll and credited to screenwriter Linda Woolverton, recalls Steven Spielberg’s contemplation of a grown-up Peter Pan in “Hook,” which seemed at least partially the director’s effort to reconcile his own youthful enthusiasms with grown-up responsibilities.
Oh, it was inspired by that book (and its sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass"), using the same characters and many similar motifs, but like Spielberg's "Hook" in relation with J.M. Barrie "Peter Pan", "Alice in Wonderland" is actually a variation on the source material more than a straight retelling of the original story.Also not unlike "Hook" is the way our protagonist, Alice ("Alice?"), is now older, has all but forgotten her famous adventures and has seemingly lost her "muchness".
It actually has quite a bit in commonwith Steven Spielberg's 1991 flop Hook.
Playing like a sequel to the infamous story of the little girl falling down the rabbit hole, this film has more in common with Steven Spielberg’s lousy Peter Pan sequel Hook than with Burton’s best films.
This “Alice” adventure is conceived as more of a sequel, treading where “Return to Oz” and “Hook” already splashed up a storm.
The basic set-up seems promising enough too, with the teenage Alice, on the cusp of womanhood, tumbling back into the weird underworld she visited as a young child but has since forgotten (shades of Hook).
The idea that Big Fish is some kind of turning point towards maturity for Tim Burton (a mid-life crisis like backhanded observation that also befell Steven Spielberg with Hook) is for thumbnosed critics unable to grasp that Burton has been making adult fairy-tales all the way back to Pee-Wee�s Big Adventure.
A total buzzkill, like something out of Spielberg’s Hook.
The movie is a genuine spectacle, laced with Burton's pitch-black wit, yet in its eager-to-please mood it often recalls the jam-packed blockbuster overkill of Steven Spielberg's Hook.
No, I haven’t forgotten about “The Adventures of Tintin” or “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” or “Hook” or “1941.”
It’s an often-stunning film that makes good use of 3D technology, with gorgeous scenes in Dream Country and moments that bring to mind Spielberg’s very similar “Hook.”
I can't understand why; it seems to me that it's one of his gentlest and most beautiful films, less frenetic than Hook , less grueling than E.T. the Extra-terrestrial and less wispy than War Horse .
(This is also why all those scenes with the Lost Boys fall flat in Hook.)
Off the back of Bridge Of Spies and Lincoln (and even War Horse), The BFG seems like an odd fit for Spielberg until you remember that he directed not only E.T., but also the hugely under-rated Hook and Tintin.
Dahl’s widely read and nearly universally revered novel began its journey to becoming a Spielberg movie some 25 years ago, at roughly the same time the director released one of his few duds, the cacophony that was 1991’s garish Peter Pan rehash, “Hook.”
Whether it’s an emotionally distant dad letting his family fall apart in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” or an adult Peter Pan fighting for his children in “Hook,” such bonds clearly matter in Spielberg’s on-screen fictions because the same connections broke down in his off-screen reality.
This one of those self-reflexive, super-indulgent Spielberg pictures like “Hook” or “Ready Player One” where the director gets so preoccupied mucking around with the idea of what it means to be a Steven Spielberg movie he forgets that most people enjoy Steven Spielberg films because they tell clear, crowd-pleasing stories and are entertaining as hell.
Hook is an uncomfortable blend of adult cynicism and a kiddie tone that never finds the effortless wonder that's in so many Spielberg pictures—and the muddy production values stand out against a filmography that's mostly visually breathtaking.
But he’s never exactly hidden in his work, employing clear directorial surrogates in everything from Jaws to Hook to The BFG , and The Fabelmans is his clearest attempt so far to reckon with what kind of artist he is, and why.
The director, once accused of having a Peter Pan complex for being so fixated on his childhood, even made an actual Peter Pan movie, 1991’s Hook .
“E.T.” for all of its glory could be emotionally manipulative, as was the underappreciated “Hook,” which has found fans 30-plus years after its release.
It's more Hook than Close Encounters , but there's little doubt what Bird was aiming for; as homages go, this one's not as successful as J.J. Abrams' Super 8 .
His overdramatic and redundant themes sound like a parody of his earlier work, ripping off Schindler's List (the main theme is only a few notes different), Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and above all, Hook.
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Fry and Hauser do a good job as the henchmen who can’t quit Cruella—especially the latter, who said in an interview that he was trying to emulate Bob Hoskins in Hook with his performance.
But when they start doing skateboard stunts, play basketball and have a massive food fight with what looks like Play-Doh and when Peter attempts to win them over by challenging their leader to a vulgar insult match the film looks a bit too much like another Spielberg enterprise, "The Goonies."
If you've seen director's George Miller's first three Mad Max movies—the eponymous original, the sequel, Road Warrior , among the greatest action movies of all time, and Beyond Thunderdome , the twisted version of Hook you didn't know you needed—then you'll catch the few scant callbacks woven into Fury Road .
The clichéd shot of children staring skyward in wonder should have died with 1991's Hook .
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Even the laborious dispatching of Mark Strong's inevitably broody master-baddie has to be followed by a compulsory (but nakedly sequel-preparing) dialogue between Downey and McAdams, who even more than ever is caught looking antsy and incapable, like Julia Roberts did in Hook.
We’re left with a pretty mercenary piece of work, that has none the visual signature or sensibility of director Guy Ritchie, but enough of the constructivism of Steven Spielberg’s Hook from the same era, to remind us of another old Robin Williams’ flick, which like this one, failed, because it was all production design and sentiment over focused, infectious storytelling.
The biggest and most famous pirate films — the aforementioend Johnny Depp films, Hook, Treasure Island — all whitewash or nullify the power of race at sea. They also sanitize the violence about about murders and rapists to make them more appropriate for children.