Hook: Superbit Edition

"What is this? Some kind of Lord of the Flies preschool?" asks Robin Williams, riffing on the mischievous Lost Boys from J.M. Barrie's children's classic Peter Pan. In Steven Spielberg's hit-and-miss 1991 update, Williams stars as Peter Banning, a harried executive who not only misses his son's ballgames, and talks on a cell phone during his daughter's school play, but he's also forgotten a rather important bit of personal history: namely, that he is Peter Pan. When his old nemesis Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman, delightfully sinking his teeth into the role like a hungry croc) jogs his memory with a rather nasty calling card--stealing his children away to Neverland--Peter returns to the land of his youth, where he must learn to embrace his inner child once again before going mano y mano with the dastardly pirate and his crew (including a bumbling Bob Hoskins). Overlong and underscripted, Hook nevertheless has its share of charms, including Julia Roberts as a pixie-ish Tinkerbell, the ever-radiant Maggie Smith as the grown-up Wendy (look for Gwyneth Paltrow as the young Wendy), and a great name calling battle royal between Peter and Lost Boy leader Rufio ("boil-dripping, beef-fart-sniffing, bubble butt!"). Nominated for five Oscars in minor categories (and winning none), Hook makes its second appearance on DVD for this Superbit Edition, and while the image is generally as sharp as Hook's prosthetic hand and colorful to boot, the original boasted a pretty darn spiffy anamorphic widescreen transfer already (although this new edition adds a DTS track to the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack). Optional. (R. Pitman)