Review of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) by Navq — 28 Jan 2013

Storyline: This is the story of Hansal and Gretel but this is the adult horror version. Hansal (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) are now famous witch hunters and travel the ancient lands fighting witches in all their guises. This is not a film you take too seriously and all though there's loads of blood and guts there are funny moments too.

Acting: Famke Janssen, who I enjoy in movies, plays the main evil witch and with the make-up is brilliant. She looked as if she enjoyed herself. Jeremy Renner was not bad either but of the two Gemma Arterton gave the better performance. I loved Peter Stormare as the sheriff, he must be busy as I just saw him in The Last Stand a few days ago. Overall I really enjoyed everyone in this.

Direction: This is Tommy Wirkola's first English speaking movie and the first time he's had a big budget. The film doesn't exactly suffer for it but you can't help feeling the problems I noticed with the pacing and how the timing in certain scenes is out when the actors are interacting with one another might not have occurred in someone else's hands.

Production: $60 million is a fair budget and mostly it was well spent like the make up, CG and of course the actors but the set designs were too generic and had no touches that lent to authenticity. I loved all the gadgets they used and thought they helped make the story a bit more exciting. Also the CG guys were great too.

Conclusion: I enjoy these types of film and liked the cast too. The effects weren't the best I've seen but were acceptable and the blood and gut effects were great and there's loads of them.