We all know the story. A brother and sister get lost in the woods, they come across a house made entirely of candy, which is owned by a witch who tries to eat them for dinner. Well, there is more to it than that. The German Brothers Grimm tale is much more gruesome than the version we have grown up with. Hansel and Gretel are children of a poor woodcutter but their father and stepmother cannot afford to feed themselves and their children so they take them deep into the forest and leave them there to fend for themselves.
In Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters the story goes that the mother was a white witch and the towns people were to come after Gretel for her heart so their parents took them in the woods to save them and both the mother and father were killed.
The movie plays out like a scary movie with little plot and lots of action. Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) have become witch hunter's in their town and are trying to find missing children of the townspeople. Unknown to them, they have become the hunted, as a witch from their past is out to kill them. For fans looking for that something more, this will surely dissapoint. The movie showcases the siblings finding witches and killing them, which is then repeated throughout the entire 80 minutes.
It has its moments-including Hansel revealing that he has diabetes due to the candy he indulged as a child, but the overall film stands thin. With not much of a story to go off on from the original, it seems director Tommy Wirkola decided to thrown in lots of action (and Jeremy Renner, of course) to make it look good.
The best part of the film is the witch (Famke Janssen), of course, who looks like Billy The Saw Puppet. Much like Disney's witches, she is pure evil and it comes across the screen perfectly.
If you want a movie with lots of action but the actors don't have much to say, then this is one for you.
Fairy tale remakes are hit or miss. Disney knows this from experience, as 2003's remake of Peter Pan made less than $50 million domestically and $122 million worldwide, failing to break even with its $140 million budget. But 2007's Enchanted and 2010's Tangled made up for it by grossing $340.5 million worldwide (Enchanted) and $588.8 million total (Tangled).
Boxoffice.com is currently predicting a $15 million opening and $35 million domestic total for Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.
No comments:
Post a Comment