A hell of a lot of fun if you're looking for action and good bloody gore!

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2013)

'HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Another 'hip' modern take on a classic fairy tale 'with a twist'; this one has a grown up Hansel and Gretel as bounty hunters hunting down and exterminating witches around the world. It stars Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner in the two lead roles and was written and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Tommy Wirkola. Wirkola also helmed the cult classic 2009 Norwegian Nazi zombie flick 'DEAD SNOW'. This is his big budget American film debut. It's just a hell of a lot of fun if you're looking for action and good bloody gore. Also is you grew up on these dark and twisted Brothers Grimm fairy tales, and don't mind a little creative liberty taken with them, the movie's a blast as well!
As kids Hansel (Renner) and Gretel (Arterton) we're abandoned by their father in the woods and kidnapped by a witch living inside a gingerbread house (they went exploring to). Planning to eat the two the witch makes Hansel stuff himself with candy while she forces Gretel to tend to an oven (which she plans to cook them in). The two kids get the better of the witch though and force her into the oven, killing her. They then grow up dedicating themselves to hunting down and killing witches. They have a special gift for this calling due to the fact that they're now immune to the spells and curses of witches (Hansel is a diabetic though, due to the fact he was forced to eat so much candy). As adult bounty hunters they're hired by the Mayor (Rainer Bock) of a town called Augsburg to rescue several children abducted by witches there. They learn that a powerful witch, by the name of Muriel (Famke Janssen), stole the children in order to sacrifice them for the ritual of Blood Moon. It's up to Hansel and Gretel to stop Muriel and her army of witches and rescue the children.
As you might have expected the movie is full of dark humor and plays out a little like a spoof but not entirely. The film is actually full of graphic gratuitous gore and is surprisingly action packed. When Hansel and Gretel are kicking witch ass the movie is at it's most fun. The film's sense of humor never gets in the way of it being a very well executed, slick and cool action film and the gore and creature elements of the film will please any die-hard horror fan. The movie did get mostly poor reviews from critics and disappointed at the American box-office (barely making it's budget back) but it made a huge profit overseas and got awesome reviews from horror critics and fans (as well as action lovers). The film has some CGI but also uses classic old school monster movie effects. Derek Mears (of 'Jason Voorhees' and 'Predator' fame, in the latest franchise installments) makes a cool appearance as a troll named Edward, Arterton is gorgeous and makes a cool kick-ass action heroine and Wirkola's directing is extremely stylized and viscerally cool. The movie is just a lot of fun (like I said) and sure to please most die-hard genre fans.
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