The fairy tale trend continues with less angst, more silliness. Elizabeth Kerr reports.

Fairy tales are in. Really, really "in." Last year there were two Snow White revisions. Later this year we can expect an epic Jack and the Beanstalk. Television is overrun with the stuff in Once Upon a Time and Grimm. Evidently princesses, dashing knights and vaguely supernatural sorcerer types are hip. Who knew?

So from that fountain springs an MTV version of the story of two children that get lost in the woods and nearly eaten by a witch in a gingerbread house. The revisionist Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters begins with the titular kids this time being hidden in the woods by their father to save them from some kind of dastardliness. They find the gingerbread house and indeed slay the witch, but this film carries on from the end of the traditional tale. Years later as strapping young adults, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) roll into a medieval village where a rash of children have been kidnapped. Blah blah blah, there's a witch conspiracy unfolding in order to take advantage of the once-in-a-generation Blood Moon that will make witches immortal. Or something. Along the way Hansel and Gretel pick up aspiring witch hunter groupie, Ben (Thomas Mann), Edward, a kindly troll, and a witch of their own, Mina (Pihla Viitala).

H&G: WH is the kind of silly schlock that used to flood late night cable; the kind of stuff you watched when you just couldn't get to sleep, made worse by the bonkers antics you were seeing on the TV. To its credit, it's willfully goofy, loaded with anachronisms that are amusing as often as they're groan-inducing and is keenly aware it's a big, dumb, noisy action entertainment - all hyper-stylized quick cut action and ridiculously gruesome deaths. The film has been floating around in the unreleased ether for some time, and now with Renner and Arterton considerably bigger stars it's seeing the light of day. Neither of them really helps though. Renner looks vaguely bored, and Famke Janssen, in the role of the Big Bad, acts as if she's cashing a cheque. Rumor has it that's exactly why she was in the film: to finance her feature directorial debut.

Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola made a bit of a splash with the Nazi zombie horror flick Dead Snow, and appears to be settling into a genre groove. Running a scant 81 minutes without the credit roll, Wirkola zips through the story like a man with a purpose (or perhaps dinner plans), never really giving us any reason to like, dislike or care about Hansel and Gretel. And twists are only twists if you don't see them coming. Still, H&G: WH looks cool (despite some OTT 3D) and doesn't get a chance to wear out its welcome with forced angst. I'm looking at you Snow White and the Huntsman.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters opened in Hong Kong on Thursday.

(HK Edition 01/26/2013 page4)