Hansel & Gretel (2002)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This is a fun flick.The actors do a good job. Delta Burke is excellent and Lynn Redgrave has many funny lines. The child actors did a good job as well. And while I usually don't care much about Howie Mandell, I think he struck the right note as the Sandman.Yes, the sets are simple, but this is a fairy tale. Fairy tales are skin and bones--nighttime stories--they are not meant to be miracles of on-location production.Maybe I'm old school, but I'll take a good story with good actors on a simple stage over fancy special effects any time. My wife and I watched Hansel and Gretel after we watched Cloverfield (with all of its special effects, including intentional shaky camera), and we thought H&G was way better.Plus, there is no swearing, no boob or penis jokes, and no gratuitous violence. Not that I'm a prude, but I think they did a good job of preserving the message of the movie: magic resides in our dreams.A fun film for the entire family.

i read the DVD case. it promised a stellar cast and adventures for my 8yr old daughter. i got it for my daughter and watched it with her. it was awful from start to finish. it made me cringe all the way through. i could feel my IQ dropping the longer i watched.1. flatulence humour. no thanks.2. anachronistic dialogue and so-called "cool" slang.3. pitiful indoor sets. it looked like they were just shooting the same set from a different side of the room.4. references, in what was probably meant to be a children's movie, to adult movies like the silence of the lambs was just the pits.5. smartmouthed and pointless characters.the lone bright spots for me were mcraney and redgrave. at least they sounded almost authentic.oui. c'est le garbage.

Hansel and Gretel, is the story of two kids who meet a witch in a house made of gingerbread. But this version, is twisted.The stepmother, wants to live in a house with a tv, and thinks the kids will stop her from that. So, she takes them into the woods, and leaves. Hansel & Gretel get lost, and meet the sandman, a wood fairy and the troll.But, a "twister" blows them towards a gingerbread house, and a near-sited old woman comes out, offering them food... but, the woman is not what she seems...This film has a great cast, and the story is great. But, there are several gags that slow down the storyline. One of which, is that the story is being told by a father telling his children. (the father is "reading" the book, but makes things up, which explains the twisted version)This film is good, but the gags might tempt you to turn it off, before you even see the witch in her gingerbread house.7/10

The Brothers Grimm wrote a short story called "Hansel & Gretel." Tag Entertainment did a fair job at converting it into a movie, although the film probably would play better on television. The film switches back and forth between the actual story of Hansel & Gretel and the father who is reading the Hansel & Gretel story to his kids. The kids, one of whom is Dakota Fanning (from "I Am Sam") are far better actors than the adults. Delta Burke's character, in particular, is very exaggerated and over-the-top, in the style of Edie McClurg. The woods that Hansel & Gretel get lost in are painfully obvious indoor sets. Trees in the background are flat paintings and, in the more distant background, there appears a blue wall where there should be dense stands of trees. Kids won't notice, though, and the movie is aimed at kids. The Sandman, as portrayed by Howie Mandel, comes across as buffoonish and silly and not very likable. And why oh why does almost every kid-oriented movie have to contain so many farts and belches? But of course "Hansel & Gretel" made no promises to greatness, and the average kid will enjoy it.