There are some movies that are just perfect not because they are actually “perfect” but because of how they make us feel. Sometimes, those are childhood favorites that maybe don’t age as well as we get older, sometimes they’re just our comfort watches, but every so often they’re just really good movies that maybe didn’t get the appreciation they deserved, be that from critics, the studio, and even the filmmaker itself. That’s the case with what is arguably one of Steven Spielberg’s best movies, but now it’s streaming for free on Tubi — and it’s still perfect in all the ways that count.
The movie we’re talking about is Hook. Released in 1991, the film is something of a modern-day sequel to the classic J.M. Barrie novel Peter and Wendy. Starring Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, and Maggie Smith, the film follows an adult Peter (Williams) who has forgotten his childhood and become a workaholic with strained relationships with his wife Moira who happens to be Wendy Darling’s granddaughter. When Captain Hook (Hoffman) kidnaps Peter’s children, however, he returns to Neverland to save them — and himself in the process. The film was a commercial success and has gone on to become a beloved fantasy film for fans, but there’s one person was disappointed in it and would even do things differently if he could — filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
While many fans still love Hook — thanks in no small part to Williams’s performance as Peter but also Hoffman’s absolutely inspired Captain Hook — Spielberg has been vocal about not being particularly proud of the film. In 2011, he did admit that there are parts of the movie he loves, but plenty others that he doesn’t — and that in retrospect, if he had had more modern technology, there are things that he would have done very differently.
“There are parts of Hook I love,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m really proud of my work right up through Peter being hauled off in the parachute out the window, heading for Neverland. I’m a little less proud of the Neverland sequences because I’m uncomfortable with that highly stylized world that today, of course, I would probably have done with live-action character work inside a completely digital set. But we didn’t have the technology to do it then, and my imagination only went as far as building physical sets and trying to paint trees blue and red.”
He also later explained in an interview with Empire that much of his displeasure with Hook came to feeling like a “fish out of water” and not having confidence in the script. He also said that he used production value to try to cover for the insecurity, which led to bigger and more colorful sets. However, while Spielberg used the sets to cover his insecurity and it’s those sets that he would do differently if he could, those sets and their colorful, somewhat over the top nature are a huge part of what makes Hook such a beloved fantasy classic. The Neverland in Hook looks and feels surreal in a way that lines up with the wonder of imagination. It has an almost gritty realness to it that lines up brilliantly with what you would expect to come from the land of the Lost Boys. It could have easily come from the mind and hands of a child and that is a big part of what makes the film unique and gives it a rich, lasting legacy.
Spielberg may ultimately not have been happy with Hook, but 35 years on, fans are still as delighted by the film today as they were when it was released — and right now, you can stream it for free on Tubi.
