For decades Hollywood has been diluting and castrating the primarily grim stories. The dream factories cooked over-sugared products like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Cinderella". But recently Tinseltown began discovering the sinister side of the Brothers Grimm. Last year I enjoyed the dark "Snow White and the Huntsman". This weekend started "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" in the US cinemas (imdb).
"Hansel" is an acceptable popcorn movie even though the film cannot match "Snow White and the Huntsman". Norwegian Director Tommy Wirkola delivered a very free and modern interpretation of the famous medieval German tale about 2 children who got abandoned in the forest and almost eaten by a witch.
The flick is very violent with a lot of gore, but served with humor - a kind of soft-splatter movie. If you don´t take the witch hunt too seriously it`s a lot of fun to see how a bunch of evil creatures with very bad manners (as kidnapping children for eating their hearts) get butchered.
It´s a pleasure to watch Gemma Arterton as a cool witch hunter in a tight leather outfit. Some of the witches also are eye cookies, especially Famke Janssen. The icing of the cake is spotting the gorgeus Pihla Viitala, a Hollywood import from Finland, taking a bath. At least the witch spectacle shows more pretty skin than you could expect from the usual prudish Hollywood blockbusters.
"Hansel and Gretel", the movie (not the story) will soon be forgotten, but the film manages to entertain within the 88 minutes it lasts.
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