This One At Least Lives Up To The Cool Title..."Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters"

An alternate title could have been: Hansel & Gretel: Punching Bags!

The Story:

Everyone is familiar with the story of Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and his sister Gretel (Gemma Arteron) about the house of candy and killing the witch.  Well, apparently the dynamic duo got a taste for killing witches, and now they make a living offing those evil ladies.  However, their latest assignment puts them face to face against the most powerful witch (Famke Janssen) they've ever faced.  The two will also learn a little something about their tragic childhood that has remained a secret... until now!

Unlike the Paul Bunyan myth I reviewed yesterday, Hansel and Gretel have a bigger budget, a better cast, and much better special effects.

Don't get me wrong, it's no classic of cinema, but it's a B movie, through and through, and that works.

Really, aside from some chunks of dialogue and swearing just to ensure the movie got an R rating, it wasn't half bad.

So there, at least it's half good, right? :)

As I alluded to with my introduction, Hansel and Gretel spend a great bit of the movie getting beaten, punched and kicked throughout the movie.  Granted, they do their fair share as well, but these two are certainly put through the ringer to earn their stripes.

It's a superhero movie without the capes. ;)

Hansel also has to take a drug every few hours to counteract the witch-candy he had to eat as a kid.  They could have easily done without that part, but I guess they needed something to make Renner even more angsty than usual.

One thing that seems puzzling, is that it seems like the witches would've used more spells than engaging the witch-killing duo straight up in a fistfights, but hey, it's not so bad.  Perhaps they had to save some budget somewhere.

It's silly, harmless fun.  No harm, no foul.

Final Grade: C+/B- range

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Probably not very likely that I would go out of my way to purchase it.  Watching it again in the future.. maybe I'll catch it on cable again one late night when I'm surfing? :)