A Ridiculous and Fun Future FX Staple: Our Review of "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" (2013)

Directed By: Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) 

Starring: Gemma Arterton, Jeremy Renner, Famke Janssen, Peter Stormare

Rating: R for strong fantasy horror violence and gore, brief sexuality/nudity and language

Run Time: 1 hour, 28 minutes

Synopsis: A re-imagining of the classic Brothers Grimm tale, years after escaping from the clutches of a witch when they were children, Hansel and Gretel (Renner and Arterton) have grown up to become professional witch hunters. When a city hit by a particularly bad rash of kidnapping by local witches hire the siblings, they wind up discovering more about the events that led up to their original witch encounter as children.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! So Sarah and I had pushed off seeing Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters off far enough and finally caught it at our local AMC last night. The film is a new spin on the old Brothers Grimm tale, starring Jeremy Renner (The Avengers) and Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace) in the title roles, with Famke Janssen (Taken 2) playing the head witch they are hunting. Now, this wasn’t a film that we thought, “Oh man we NEED to see that!” But it was one that piqued my interest…

Sarah: It definitely looked entertaining in a totally cheesy way.

A: Exactly. So now that we’ve seen Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Sarah, what did you think of it?

S: I thought that it was entertaining! It had a lot of action and some over-the-top gore and blood and guts. And it totally maintained its R rating with that violence and with the language. It was very much like The Brothers Grimm movie that starred Matt Damon and Heath Ledger mixed with the Van Helsing movie with Kate Beckinsale and Hugh Jackman. I loved it because of that. It was fun and entertaining and over-the-top silly. It’s been a while since we’ve been entertained at the movie theatre, and this one certainly entertained me. I didn’t have to think too hard. And I wasn’t repulsed by the gore or anything, so that was good.

So yeah, it was entertaining but not a whole lot more than that. What did you think?

Take Your Hard-Earned Money and See A Different Movie This Weekend: Our Review of "Taken 2" (2012)

Directed By: Olivier Megaton (Columbiana) 

Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some sensuality

Run Time: 1 hour, 31 minutes

Synopsis: Some time after Bryan Mills (Neeson) saved his daughter Kim (Grace) from being kidnapped in Paris by a sex slave operation and all seems well, he invites them to vacation with him in Turkey after his finishes a bodyguard job. What he doesn’t plan on is family members of the Albanian gangsters he killed in the first movie coming after him to exact revenge for his actions.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! Last night Sarah and I braved the middle and high schoolers that congregate at the local multiplex on Friday nights (shouldn’t there be high school football going on???) to see this weekend’s new action film Taken 2. The sequel to 2008’s surprise Taken, it sees the return of Liam Neeson to his role as ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills. This time instead of his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), being kidnapped it is he and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) who are kidnapped and Kim has to help save them.

So this was one I think we were both kind of looking forward to mainly because Taken is plain awesome and I guess it was an assumption that a sequel made by essentially the same crew as the first one would be just as badass.

Sarah: Well the first one was surprisingly scary, too, because Kim is taken in Paris which is not usually considered a dangerous city. I mean, every city has it’s dangerous parts, but she’s abducted and sold into sex slavery. That’s terrifying!

Taken 2, however, is a pure revenge movie where the father of one of the Albanian’s Bryan killed wants to kidnap him and his family and bring him back to Albania for justice.

Let’s do this a little bit differently and I’m going to let you start by telling me what YOU thought of this one.

A: To be quite honest, I wasn’t impressed. I really wanted to like it because I love the first one and I assumed this one would just be mindless fun. And at times it is, but for the most part it’s actually quite tedious because there are very slight variances between this one and the original, but not enough actual excitement or originality to make me enjoy it. Honestly I was bored a lot of the time we were watching this.

Yeah, Liam Neeson is still pretty badass as Bryan Mills. Too bad he doesn't do too many cool things like this in Taken 2.

Our Preview of This Week's New Releases (for Friday, October 5th)

Andrew: Hello readers! It's time again for a preview of this week's new theatrical releases! This week we don't have a large number of wide releases with only Taken 2, the sequel to the 2008 surprise hit action film Taken, and Tim Burton's new animated movie, Frankenweenie, which is coming out in time for Halloween.

There are some limited release films coming out as well such as Butter, The Paperboy and V/H/S but none of those are hitting our neck of the woods. That said, another limited release film that is increasing to more screens this weekend in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and you can read our five-clapboard review of that right here.

So Sarah, with only a couple of films to talk about, let's get down to it and talk intimately about Taken 2. Directed by Olivier Megaton, who directed last year’s fun Zoe Saldana action flick Columbiana and the third entry in the Jason Statham Transporter series, Taken 2 sees the return of Liam Neeson to the role of ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills.

If anyone's been living under a rock the last few years, in the original film Mills' daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), is kidnapped while on vacation in Paris by an Albanian sex trade ring and Mills goes on a rampage through Paris to get here back. In a word, it's awesome.

Sarah, all I'm looking for with this sequel is that it's just a badass. I'm expecting a pretty similar story but if the action is on par with the original, I'll be a happy man. It's written by Luc Besson, the somewhat legendary French filmmaker/writer who wrote the first one, so hopefully it'll be good.

The Trailer for "Taken 2" Makes It Looks As Good As the Original!

Andrew: Hello readers! Lots and lots of trailers coming out this week, our apologies for a being a little slow on posting some of them. We'll try to get around to as many as we can, but for now I'm posting this particular one because it looks awesome.


This is the first trailer I've seen for Taken 2, the sequel to the surprise hit Taken starring Liam Neeson a few years ago. Whereas in the first one it was Kim (played by Maggie Grace), the daughter of Neeson's Bryan Mills that was taken, this time it looks like it's Bryan that's being hunted down and his ex-wife, Lenore (played by Famke Janssen) is abducted. At least that's all the trailer shows, I expect there to be more to the story.


In the meantime, check it out!

Taken 2 brings back all three of Neeson, Grace and Janssen, is produced by Luc Besson, and comes out on October 5.