52
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Washington PostHal HinsonWashington PostHal HinsonSpielberg and Co. have finally made their Disney movie -- or better yet, their film version of a theme park at Disneyland. It's sort of like "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "It's a Small World" rolled into one. It's a helluva contraption, and certainly one to be marveled at. It gives good ride.
- 80Orlando SentinelJay BoyarOrlando SentinelJay BoyarIt's a lot of fun to watch - over two hours of thrills, spills, elaborate sets and special effects, all tied together by a pleasingly varied (and lighter than usual) musical score by John Williams.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanHook is jam-packed with ''entertainment value,'' enough to give you your money's worth, and to guarantee (in all probability) that Spielberg earns his. Yet something has clouded this director's vision... The problem isn't that Spielberg has lost his gift for fantasy. It's that he no longer seems to know (or care) about anything else.
- 60Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFor very much like Peter, it has clearly gotten harder for this director to break free of the lure of material things and believe in simple magic. And whatever problems his Hook has, there are none that making the film on half of its budget wouldn't have cured.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertPoignancy. Lessons to be learned. Speeches to be made. Lost marbles to be rediscovered. Tears to be shed. The conclusion of Hook would be embarrassingly excessive even for a movie in which something of substance had gone before.
- 40Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenHook has you marveling at the nuts-and-bolts work of producers and assistant directors, but never at the intrinsic imaginativeness of the story. It's as if Spielberg calculatedly set out to make a perennial classic -- certain folly if ever there were.
- 40EmpireWilliam ThomasEmpireWilliam ThomasHow did such a dream project on paper turn out so wrong. It should remain one of the great mysteries of cinema. The less said about this one, the better. For Spielberg completists only.
- 40The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyHook is overwhelmed by a screenplay heavy with complicated exposition, by what are, in effect, big busy nonsinging, nondancing production numbers and some contemporary cant about rearing children and the high price paid for success.
- 40NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenA good half hour too long, and badly in need of some scares, Hook is a huge party cake of a movie, with too much frosting. After the first delicious bite, sugar shock sets in.