Scattershot Grimm fairy tale 're-imagining'

Rating: 7/10 (6 February 2013)

HANSEL & GRETEL : WITCH HUNTERS (2013) ** Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Peter Stormare Pihla Viitala, Thomas Mann, Derek Mears, Robin Atkin Downes (voice), Zoe Bell. Scattershot Grimm fairy tale 're-imagining' with the titular victims of a witch's attempt to devour flash forward to become vigilante bounty hunters on the evil creatures while attempting to help a village plagued with kidnappings and sorcery. While the leads as siblings have zip chemistry and the try-anything-go-for-broke-anachronisms-aplenty by newbie filmmaker Tommy Wirkola is hit-and-miss the film has its appeal in at least being better than "Van Helsing" - and some not-bad on screen kills with plenty of viscera! and a sexy/scary turn by Janssen with some affective CGI and cool make-up by Twilight Creations - even the IMAX 3D doesn't truly disappoint, its the fact that this is executive produced by Will Ferrell's (!) production company that fails to get any yucks when it could've easily gone the Monty Python route.