Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

I already knew that Tommy Wirkola was a desperate director, and I understood from the trailer that this film is as dumb as a brick, so it's not a surprise. Fortunately, the film doesn't take itself seriously, but practically anything can be hidden under exaggeration. I forgive the film for being stupid, but I can't overlook that it's sometimes tasteless. Hansel & Gretel deserve one star from me for the cast and the animated subtitles. It's the same as The Brothers Grimm, but that film represents a completely different level of filmmaking. It's quite embarrassing that it has significantly lower ratings than this pop culture mishmash. Well, that's the price we pay for the average age of the site's users. Overall impression: 15%. (08/02/2015)

Whenever I hear the names Hansel and Gretel, I immediately think of two kids with a penchant for unconventional architecture. This time, the title hinted at something bigger, and it delivered. Instead of the future sponsors of dentistry, we got a story about serial killers targeting lonely elderly women. But they weren't using methods from the times of the Brothers Grimm; no, they had an arsenal that even John Rambo or the Terminator wouldn't shy away from. For me, it was a funny, action-packed movie that charmingly juggled with human anatomy and didn't pretend to be anything else. It simply entertained viewers on the same wavelength. Clearly, I was on that wavelength for the second time, so I had a blast. Plus, I had an aesthetic experience courtesy of Gemma Arterton. / Lesson learned: If you're a witch hunter, real life might not be a walk in the park. 4*+ (20/02/2022)

Brutal, crazy, effective and fun small-scale movie. On the other hand, it’s such a simple movie that it doesn’t really have a deeper message. The story has zero telling value and it’s all created for one single reason – to entertain the viewer – successfully so. Which is no surprise considering it has Jeremy Renner in the lead role of Hansel who has to inject himself with insulin because the Witch used to stuff him full of candy when he was a kid and now he’s lucky to still be alive. On the other side, there’s Gemma Arterton who got incredibly hot since Prince of Persia, which is thanks to latex, but also thanks to her cool lines and the overall toughness and edginess of both Hansel and Gretel. In any case, this was the perfect entertainment for 87 minutes. (06/06/2013)

The fairytale of the Brothers Grimm is quite different, in both the good and the bad sense of the word. Hansel and Gretel is a very brisk film with a likable cast, mixing wit, action and romance, and it's watchable in the end, but it doesn't dazzle, nor does it leave anything deeper (which is to be expected, but still). Örvarsson's music reminded me terribly of Sherlock (Zimmer as executive music producer) right at the beginning, which maybe bothered me a bit, but then it fizzled out. The plot wasn't bad, but I'm sure the overall theme could have been fleshed out more. That said, the primary purpose of the film was (probably) to serve up a crazy action-packed take on a fairy tale classic that was meant to entertain, which it did. In short, an average Hollywood film that stands out from the rest perhaps only in its approach and relationship to the source materia (19/06/2013)

More like two and a half stars. On the one hand, there will be swearing at Van Helsing and The Brothers Grimm, and on the other hand, people will marvel at this gem that is considerably less imaginative and funny. And never-mind the actors. Could it be that the cheap, bloody special effects that many people gush about helped add to the great fun I'm reading about here? Or perhaps the forced coolness of the main characters, especially the once again unprecedentedly wooden Jeremy Renner? Or the parade of awkward vulgarities? It's possible... Anyway, I did smile occasionally and the action scenes had quite good swing, but the best character of the whole film was simply Edward the troll, who topped even the lovely Gemma Arterton in second place. Peter Stormare played almost the same man in the aforementioned The Brothers Grimm, and he did it better. (09/06/2013)