Neil Fox’s films: Hansel and Gretel, Safe Haven

Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters

Published on 27/02/2013 08:28

Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters

It hasn’t quite happened for Jeremy Renner has it?

He broke through in scintillating fashion in the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker.

But since then his screen appearances have been lacklustre and very one-dimensional, to put it kindly – The Town, Bourne reboot, Avengers.

And he doesn’t seem to be stemming the tide with his latest, with another hotly tipped star, Gemma Arterton, that has failed to truly ignite along for the ride.

This slice of hokum, which is enjoyable but utterly disposable, is yet another modernist revamping of a classic fairy tale.

The resourceful brother and sister have grown into globe-trotting witch killers of great renown and they encounter a foe who can help them lay the ghosts of their past to rest, naturally, potentially (not at the expense of a sequel of course).

As with Snow White And The Huntsman, there is at heart the possibility of a fascinating film, but it’s buried deep under clichéd scripting, average CGI and uncharismatic leads.

If you remember it beyond the car park on your way home, I’ll be surprised.

Safe Haven

Oh goodie, another Nicholas Sparks adaptation to clog up the screen with its maudlin, sepia-tinged and predictable view of love and romance.

What’s more troubling for me is how this series of identikit stories manages to reduce once-decent directors to the level of conveyor belt hack.

Lasse Hallstrom directed the superb What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and My Life As A Dog and here he is taking on the story of a woman who falls in love upon her arrival in North Carolina and is forced to confront her past and turning it into drivel.

This kind of tosh might be passable picked up in an airport somewhere but cinema audiences surely deserve more.

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Neil Fox’s films: Hansel and Gretel, Safe Haven

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