In this spin on the fairy tale, Hansel & Gretel are now bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that might hold a secret to their past.
There’s the occasional reasonable joke, a very game Arterton in leather trousers, and enough gore to make even a Grimm brother shudder.
At best it's an intermittent assault on the senses but even that's not nearly as fun as it sounds.
The gore is a bore and the sweary script just isn’t funny.
A lurching misstep from the Dead Snow director.
This seems like a movie in love with itself and the cute twist of its one thin premise. It takes a fairy tale and plays it for laughs, without being remotely funny. For the most part, it’s grim rather than Grimm.
Famke Janssen alone seems to be enjoying herself.
The picture moves fast and is an efficient enough action-horror, with good effects and plenty of violence, but it’s too machine-tooled and perfunctory to make you care.
It demonstrates the gravitational pull of terribleness that the good films heroically resist and rise above. The Oscars now seem a very, very long time ago.
Witless action movie.
The obscene language (eg "whatever you do, don't eat the fucking candy") and extreme violence, quite a lot of it directed against women, make it unsuitable for children, something recognised by a 15 certificate. Maybe it's so-called young adults the makers are after.
Renner and Gemma Arterton struggle valiantly with a script that mostly involves cracking hag-heads while cracking wise. With so little to work with their talents are mostly wasted, but at least they seem to be having fun, and this self-awareness (rubbish, but proudly rubbish) proves the film’s saving grace.
General release. Check local listings for show times.