Casey's Movie Mania: HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS (2013)

Rating: 3/10 (23 January 2013)

Originally scheduled for March 2012 release, HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS was ultimately delayed for nearly a year. According to an interview, director Tommy Wirkola has stated that the main reason of the delayed release is the studio's (Paramount Pictures) decision to wait on Jeremy Renner to become a bigger name. Back then, he was only known for his breakout role in 2009's THE HURT LOCKER and considered not bankable enough for mainstream audiences in the US. Plus, he was cast in this movie before MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL, THE AVENGERS and THE BOURNE LEGACY. Now that the movie is finally arrived, I was expecting Wirkola's go-for-broke filmmaking style he had once displayed with such enthusiastic flair in 2009's DEAD SNOW. The good news is, Wirkola's US debut in HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS is a hard-hitting, R-rated gorefest -- with plenty of hardcore violence, dark humor, goofy undertone and playful energy in a compact 88 minutes. The bad news is, this movie is terribly skimpy and just about everything here is done for the wrong reason.
When Hansel (Cedric Eich) and Gretel (Alea Sophia Boudodimos) are just kids, they wander around the deep forest after being left by their father (Thomas Scharff) and eventually ends up at the Gingerbread House. Well, as in this classic fairy tale, you should know how the story ends except that this movie offers a new twist: These two siblings manage to defeat and burn the witch where they are being held captive inside the Gingerbread House. Many years later, they grow up (now played by Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton) and become professional witch hunters ever since.
They arrive in the German town of Augsburg, just in time to save the beautiful Mina (Pihla Viitala) from being wrongly executed as a witch by the arrogant Sheriff Berringer (Peter Stormare). Apparently these siblings are hired by the mayor (Rainer Bock) to hunt down an evil sorceress who has been kidnapping the town's children. They subsequently discovers that the missing children involves a Grand Witch Muriel (Famke Janssen), who is apparently has a bigger agenda of her own.
From the surface, it's actually interesting to see Wirkola is game enough to twist a classic fairy tale into a gun-toting gorefest. But his screenplay with D.W. Harper is sadly paper-thin and everything here seems to be executed like a failed TV pilot episode. Even the romantic subplot involving Hansel and Mina feels more like a gratuitous filler (not to mention an excuse to showcase a nude Pihla Vittala). While Wirkola's direction is fast and furious, his penchant to shoot the action scene up close with lots of rapid zooms and harsh editing is rather frustrating to watch for.
Despite being blessed with a decent $60 million budget, the movie looks surprisingly cheap. The forest setting looks as if they are executed for a stage production, while all the makeup effects and the costumes are more akin of some elaborate Halloween party. As for the cast, most of them are instantly forgettable.
The remaining saving graces here are two energetic performances from Jeremy Renner and especially Gemma Arterton. Wirkola's gleeful excess of over-the-top violence, as well as his F-bomb anachronisms has its certain entertainment values. Too bad that's not nearly enough to warrant this movie as a satisfying guilty-pleasure outing. It's a huge waste of opportunity, and a far cry from what Wirkola has done so well in DEAD SNOW.
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