Not just a children’s fairy-tale anymore, Hansel and Gretel are witch hunters.
The age-old children’s fairytale has finally come to the big screen. “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” opened in theaters Friday January 25. Director Tommy Wirkola, who has also produced the 2009 zombie comedy “Dead Snow,” directed the film.
The film stars Jeremy Renner, who has also has been in films such as “Marvel’s The Avengers,” as Hansel and Gemma Arterton, who has been seen in “Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time,” stars as Gretel.
Arterton and Renner both provide a tough guy/girl image throughout the film as they take on witches.
The film takes the Grimm fairytale and turns it into an action packed movie with some comic relief. Wirkola stays true to his gory roots showing blood and guts in many of the films scenes. Graphics in the movie are excellent and the fighting scenes flow smoothly without looking fake. The action scenes are both thrilling and suspenseful giving out thrills every time a witch’s head explodes.
The film follows Hansel and Gretel after their horrific experience with the first witch they killed.
The duo continues throughout the years killing witches and collecting bounty money. They finally end up in a small town named Augsburg where the mayor has hired them for their witch hunting services. Hansel and Gretel soon find out that the town of Augsburg holds many secrets and not all witches are what they seem.
Renner and Arterton provide an excellent onscreen witch hunting, bounty hunter duo that wield an assortment of weapons that do look awesome but don’t seem appropriate for that time period.
The use of modern day English and profanity in the film provides a comic relief but seemed a bit out of place.
The witches were scary throughout the movie but they all looked too much like a traditional green-faced, pimpled witch and at many times they seemed a little fake.
Overall “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” is an action packed film with lots of blood, action, fighting, and a great story line with a twist at the end. I think this is a film both guys and girls can enjoy.