hook

i remember back when this one originally came out i was really excited about it and couldnt wait to see it. when i finally did see it i was kind of like 'meh'. all these years later i find i have the same response: meh. on paper it looks amazing: robin williams, the boy who never grew up, playing the boy who never grew up; dustin hoffman bringing a certain depth and gravitas to the role of captain hook; even julia roberts as the cute little tinkerbell. what could possibly go wrong? well, this is one of those times where the whole is less than all of its parts. the story is set many years after the original peter pan, with peter coming to our world and growing up. he got married, has two kids, and seems to have a pretty good, if busy, life. they go to visit their great aunt wendy and the kids get kidnapped by hook to try and get peter to come back to neverland for a rematch. much of the problems with this movie stem from the ridiculous stuff with the lost boys and with the kinda creepy love story elements in it. tinkerbell has always been in love with peter, which isnt played so much for its sweetness, but rather as an awkward wedge between them. great aunt wendy admits to always loving peter, who is 40 years her junior and happily married, which just kind of adds a sad creepy factor to the movie. the biggest problem over all though, is that there is a lot to look at, all of which looks pretty cool, but there is no heart to any of it. try as speilberg might, there is no depth to this fluff. over all, it felt like a great opportunity wasted. perhaps it will be revisited one day in a remake with someone else at the helm who can really dig in to the depths of the characters and situations.