Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: January 25, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
23
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
8
Negative:
16
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Boston GlobeTom RussoJan 27, 2013
Wirkola tears through Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters with such giddy abandon, it ends up being splattery fanboy fun. Preposterous, clearly, but fun. Read full review
58
Paste MagazineScott WoldApr 3, 2018
Unfortunately, Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola’s Hansel & Gretel is just another entry in Bland Fairy Tale Theater, a shapeless riff on those hapless German siblings with the worst parents ever. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissJan 28, 2013
The blend of fairy-tale sentiment and knowing irony worked exactly once, in "The Princess Bride," and fails here. But there's enough visual ingenuity - eye candy, if you will - to make this Hansel & Gretel an intermittently tasty temptation. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonJan 25, 2013
The grim heroes don't have a nuance or more than a hint of emotion between them, and the same goes for the film around them. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyKeith StaskiewiczJan 25, 2013
An intermittently fun, but overexcited and predictable mish-mash. Read full review
40
Total FilmJosh WinningFeb 9, 2013
Though it gives good splat and the scenery’s to die for, Hansel & Gretel gets just about everything wrong. Hammy, boring, chronically unfunny - there’ll be nightmares before bedtime. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJan 25, 2013
Even if he's slumming, Renner gets it best: his dry delivery fully acknowledges the movie's ridiculousness. If you're planning on entering this fractured fairy tale, you'll want to follow his lead. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberJan 25, 2013
The film is smart enough not to wear out its welcome. But that's the only sign of true intelligence in this juvenile caper. Read full review
40
VarietyAndrew BarkerJan 25, 2013
While the film rarely provokes any strenuous eye-rolling, it also can't drum up even the slightest interest in the fate of its characters, let alone suspense. Read full review
38
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJan 30, 2013
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is more Gatling guns and grenades than The Brothers Grimm. Read full review
37
Washington PostStephanie MerryJan 25, 2013
A rarely funny spoof that's heavy on bone-crushing and blood-gushing. Read full review
30
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerJan 26, 2013
There isn't much swashbuckling chemistry between Mr. Renner and Ms. Arterton, and the script doesn't give them enough of the witty lines that can elevate these types of movies to must-see status. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 25, 2013
If the similarly situated "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" took itself too seriously, the problem with Hansel & Gretel is that it doesn't quite take itself seriously enough - which sounds insane, but it's not too much to ask that the movie go beyond its one and only joke. Instead, amid all the fake Sturm und Drang, all we hear is the movie giggling to itself. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedJan 29, 2013
In an age of zombies, werewolves and oversexed vampires, teens won't be shaking in their Uggs over ugly women with bad teeth flying around on brooms, and with its graphic depictions of tortures, mutilations, gang rapes and myriad examples of child abuse, it's no longer a fairy tale suitable for children. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJan 26, 2013
The film can't be accused of taking itself seriously. Shot in 3-D, with lots of choppy action, a rudimentary plot, and plenty of CGI-shape-shifting, it comes in at a brisk, disposable 88 minutes. Read full review
25
The PlaylistKatie WalshJan 25, 2013
Not only is not even a single character more than one-dimensional, but every line falls flatter than a witch dispatched with a Gatling gun. Read full review
25
USA TodayClaudia PuigJan 25, 2013
This genre stew throws in so many ingredients - including sundry body parts that are cut off and go flying, and heads that explode - that the result is a tasteless mash-up that's hard to stomach. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 2, 2013
This movie is a case in point. It's a film which is so demeaningly bad, so utterly without merit, that there is a kind of purity in its awfulness. There is a Zen mastery in producing a film which nullifies the concept of pleasure. Read full review
20
Time OutKeith UhlichJan 25, 2013
No stranger to one-joke premises, writer-director Tommy Wirkola (of 2009's Nazi-zombie "classic" "Dead Snow") populates this frenzied horror-satire with tons of incoherently staged bloodletting and f-bomb–accentuated kiss-off lines. It's a grim fairy tale, all right. Read full review
11
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 30, 2013
In his English-language debut, Wirkola dabbles in everything but commits to nothing, making for an unmemorable brew best left untasted. Read full review
10
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJan 29, 2013
The Brothers Grimm may have come up with some cruel, weird material in their day, but they'd never condone actor abuse like this. Read full review
10
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJan 26, 2013
What galls is that for all the perspiration in jazzing up an old yarn, there's not a whiff of originality in how Wirkola engages with the perverse pleasures enshrined by the Grimm brothers, two of their era's shrewdest storytellers. Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 25, 2013
What to say about this lame-brained, limp dick attempt to update a classic Brothers Grimm tale into an f-bomb throwing vomit-inducing 3D franchise? I say, screw the damn thing and run the other way. Read full review
0
Slant MagazineJan 25, 2013
Tommy Wirkola's film suggests A Knight's Tale as penned by Seth MacFarlane. Read full review
0
New York PostLou LumenickJan 25, 2013
An exceedingly dull and stillborn attempt to update the Brothers Grimm. Read full review
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