The Michigan Daily- Thursday, January 9, 1992 - Page 9
We re.
hooked!
Hook.
dir. Steven Spielberg
by Marie Jacobson
Remember how stressed out you
were a month ago, with three exams
and two research papers due the
same day? Remember those late
*night cram fests, that lovely No-
Doz@-induced hyper-zombie state,
and the sinking realization that you
were probably doomed to sleep
through Christmas and New Year?
According to Steven Spielberg, it
could be worse. After all, you sur-
vived, didn't you? But what if you
were still living the nightmare and
couldn't remember how to regain
your usual happy-go-lucky, effer-
vescent personality?
Welcome to the beginning of
Hook, Spielberg's recreation of the
Peter Pan fantasy. Billed as a film
for adults and children alike, its
plodding plot is buoyed only by the
attention given to the inner work-
ings of the character's minds, and
their relationships with each other.
Peter (Robin Williams) is mar-
ried with children, and though we
know he loves his family, he just
can't seem to tear himself away
from the magical realm of corporate
mergers and acquisitions. Pete needs
a vacation, and he needs it bad. So,
it's off to London for Christmas,
where the family is reunited with
Wendy (Maggie Smith), the elderly
woman who cared for countless or-
phaned children - including Peter.
4 Enter Captain James Hook, bril-
liantly played by Dustin Hoffman.
Hook's a pirate with a plan: to re-
play the battles he fought long ago
with Peter and the Lost Boys. The
best way to bring his arch-enemy
back to Neverland, Hook decides, is
to kidnap his children.
But when Peter initially con-
fronts Hook, they both realize that
Pan is out of shape. Only Tinkerbell
(Julia Roberts) has any hope for
him, and she promises Hook that she
and the Lost Boys can whip Peter
into shape in three days.
When Peter undergoes the Pan
process, in true fairy-tale fashion,
the whole mess is inevitably re-
solved. Not exactly a surprise end-
ing, of course, and there's a tempta-
tion to dismiss Hook as just another
'overblown, over-budgeted, pre-
dictable Hollywood warm-fuzzy.
It isn't.
Not that Hook doesn't have its
flaws, mind you. The problem with
hiring big-name stars is that you
have to use them - a lot. Unfortu-
nately, in doing so, the lesser-known
actors who could add considerable
color and depth to a film get passed
over in the studio's compulsion to
get its money's worth from its
hired guns.
And speaking of color - when
you let your imagination run wild,
are your fantasies painted in mousy
browns and dismal greys? Spiel-
berg's Never-never Land didn't look
as bleak as Ann Arbor in February,
but in a film that champions creativ-
ity, a rich landscape of bright pri-
mary colors would have been in-
finitely more appropriate and defi-
nitely welcomed.
The real triumph of Hook is in
its portrayal of the psychological
side of its characters. Especially
poignant is Spielberg's conception
of the manic-depressive Hook. The
aging captain acts not out of a deep-
seated, burning need for revenge, but
from fear and the desire to revisit
his lost youth.
Roberts, with her trademark
horsey laugh and gawky fidgeting, is
not the fragile fairy audiences grew
accustomed to in Disney's Peter
Pan. Nevertheless, the unrequited
love between her Tinkerbell and
William's Peter is one of the most
delicate, touching aspects of the en-
tire movie. By allowing us to view
her pain, Spielberg gently reminds
us that not everyone can live happily
ever after, even in fairy tales.
If you're looking for escapism
and non-stop entertainment, pass up
Hook. It is hopelessly plodding -in
parts and rather ho-hum in the cine-
matography department. But don't
miss the challenges and rewards of
examining Spielberg's insightful
portrayal of these classic characters.
OOK is playing at Showcase and
A 2iriarwood.
RECORDS
Continued from page 8
Marky Mark's "Good Vibrations"
when no one is around. As for my
own cheese-soaked musical secrets,
none compare to my closet adu-
lation of those denizens of debau-
chery, M6tley Crue.
Decade Of Decadence is a com-
prehensive anthology of the Crue's
raunchy rock anthems from the last
10 years. "Dr. Feelgood," "Looks
speaker wire. This song, along with
"Piece Of Your Action" from their
debut album, have been remixed to
bring them up to '90s Bob Rock-
produced standards.
The Crne have also remixed
"Home Sweet Home," the mother
of all modern heavy metal ballads.
The strings and pianos have been
thickened to further pump up the
song's already grandiose pomposity.
Like all good little "greatest
the bone-crushing "Dr. Feelgood."
But the real winner here is the
song "Angela." This soon-to-be-
pop-metal-classic sounds like the
Bay City Rollers tap-dancing on a
chain-saw. The upbeat, sing-song
chorus is reminiscent of Poison be-
fore they lost their sense of humor.
Ah, the good old days...
So, go ahead, indulge yourself.
Dare to be uncool. Crank up that
new Color Me Badd song. Buy the
latest disc by Martika. Cheese is in.
Speaking of, I hear there's a new
Warrant single out soon...
-Scott Sterling
HUDSON
Continued from page 8
come an actor.
Hudson says, "You hear all the
stories of how you can never make a
living, and how hard it is on Black
actors. But to me, the bottom line
is: I'll be poor. Hell, I was broke
anyway, so I really don't have any-
thing to lose. At least I'll have fun
doing it. And since then, once the
commitment was made, I've made a
good living."
Though his roles have not been
first-rate, Hudson has managed to
succeed at doing what he enjoys, un-
like most of the working popula-
tion. Many of his decisions have
been practically motivated by the
need to feed his family. But for now,
he can pick and choose. "I've just
been offered-the part of a child mur-
derer," he says. "As long as I can af-
ford not to do things that I don't
want to do, that's what I'll do. If
my mortgage gets behind, who
knows what you'll see me doing ..."
THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE
CRADLE opens tomorrow at Show-
case.
Decade Of Decadence
is a comprehensive
anthology of the Crue's raunchy rock
anthems from the last 10 years ... It's an
unashamed celebration of all forms of
pleasures, from sex, drugs, booze, etc., to the
sleazy, ear-splitting music itself.
That Kill," "Kickstart My Heart"
(live, no less!) - they're all here.
It's an unashamed celebration of all
forms of pleasures, from sex, drugs,
booze, etc., to the sleazy, ear-
splitting music itself.
This killer collection of Crue
classics burns from beginning to
end. It opens with their first single,
"Live Wire," a jack-hammer paced
song that threatens to fry your
hits" albums should, Decade does
come with some new songs, to en-
tice even the most ardent Crile fan
to re-purchase songs that they prob-
ably already own. "Primal Scream"
is the best of these five extra tracks.
This powerhouse track will defi-
nitely leave a dent in speaker cones
all over suburban America. Gui-
tarist Mick "Grandpa" Mars comes
up with the heaviest Crile riff since
MURRAY
Continued from page 5
strip," Murray explains.
"The Observer's lawyers were
sort of getting me on the line saying
you know, 'Can we back this up?' I
had fact checkers on the line saying,
'Can we hear the interview tape?'...
"It's the most successful scam I
ever perpetrated. It fooled my
mother. She read it and rang me up,
you know, 'I always thought Bat-
man was a fictional character."'
Though all of Murray's work in
Shots from the Hip isn't deceiving or
full of stinging barbs toward rock
music's finest, he maintains that his
"irreverent" tone hasn't changed.
"Well, generally speaking, you
can still be cutting, but the language
has to be a little more sophisti-
cated,"'he says.
"Mind you, the last thing I
wrote for the Daily Telegraph be-
fore I left to come here, I was re,-
viewing U2's new album and I said
fortunately the band still sounds;
great. Unfortunately Bono is still a
prat. Which is pretty much the lan-
guage I would have used fifteen
years ago in the NME.
"If I can still call the lead singer
of one of the most popular groups in
the world a prat in print, then I
don't think I mellowed that much."
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