It turns out Jeremy Renner's uber-busy schedule may not be the biggest obstacle Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2 has to face. The sequel to the R-rated fairy tale just lost its director.

Fangoria breaks our hearts by reporting Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters helmer Tommy Wirkola has walked away from the sequel. He explains:

Excuse me. I need a moment to let my hopes for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2 shatter completely.

On the surface, this might not seem like a huge deal. After all, it seems Wirkola is game to help produce the pic alongside Gary Sanchez Productions. He's already turned his final draft of the sequel's screenplay into Paramount Pictures. So the studio can just hunt down a new director, right?

Yeah. In theory. But more likely is that Tommy Wirkola's walking away will put Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2 on a "we'll deal with this later" shelf from which it will never come down. Now, there's just too little in its favor to remain optimistic.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters was set up to fail. After repeated delays in its release, Paramount finally unveiled the picture in January, a common dumping ground for lackluster projects. The studio kept critics away by limiting press screenings, resulting in a trickling of reviews that were mostly bad. But despite all these hurdles, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters found an audience, and climbed to a moderately impressive $226 million worldwide. So, Paramount promised us a sequel. This summer Paramount further promised we'd have it by 2016.

Then came the bad news. While promoting his insane sequel Dead Snow 2, Wirkola confessed he didn't know when Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2 might shoot because "Jeremy [Renner] is so busy these days…We’ll see. Hopefully, I’ll get to do another film first."

From there, I had the opportunity to ask Renner about the prospect of his reprising the role of Hansel, and he agreed his schedule is an issue. But he offered, "I don't have any problem with (doing the sequel). Yeah. (The first one) was a lot of fun. It was fun to do that movie, and just have a ball." But with Wirkola gone, Renner will be far less likely to be called on to hoist his steam punk shotgun for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2.

Frankly, the first film was so distinctively within Wirkola's style of gore and comedy that's it's hard to imagine this sequel moving on without him. Think of it like Ant-Man--albeit with way less people caring about it. It's likely that after Wirkola spent so much time and energy creating the world of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2, any director who took this gig would be in a lose-lose scenario. If they don't do well, fans of the first film will condemn him/her for screwing up Wirkola's sequel. If they do a great job and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2 is a totally blast, Wirkola will be credited for having done the heavy lifting.

Having said all this. I hope I'm wrong. But it seems like the thing both Wirkola and Renner want before they'd consider Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 2 is time. And time is often the death of sequels.

With so many titles to choose from, Netflix Instant's library can be overwhelming. So we offer this biweekly column as a tool to cut through the clutter by highlighting some now streaming titles that pair nicely with the latest theatrical releases.

Looking to Parker, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, and Movie 43 for inspiration, we've pulled together a selection of mind-blowing action movies, fascinating fairy tales and raunchy ensemble comedies.

Parker

Jason Statham stars as the titular master thief who seeks vengeance on the crew that turned on him and left him for dead. Teaming up with an unscrupulous real estate agent (Jennifer Lopez), Parker plans to hijack the duplicitous crew's next take. Michael Chiklis, Bobby Cannavale, Nick Nolte, Clifton Collins Jr., and Patti LuPone co-star; Taylor Hackford directs.

With a convoluted plot and major misfires, Parker will likely be a flick quickly forgotten. But if you enjoy action movies centered on captivating criminals, you're sure to check out this tense trio that includes a face-snatching terrorist, a charismatic bank robber, and a daring drug dealer/devoted dad.

Face/Off (1997) FBI agent Sean Archer takes going undercover to a new extreme when he has plastic surgery to swap faces with imprisoned terrorist Castor Troy. But when this unhinged criminal escapes—with Archer's face—the tables are turned in a crazy game of cat and mouse. John Travola and Nic Cage star and swap roles with a flare that's insanely fun to witness; John Woo directs.

Out of Sight (1998) Jennifer Lopez cemented her movie star status with this whip-smart crime comedy that co-stars George Clooney. He's a bank robber with a smile that makes tellers melt, and she's a federal marshal who is as sassy as she is fearless. Their meet-cute takes place in the trunk of a car as he escapes prison. Later, as she tries to track him down, their game of cat and mouse only adds fuel to the fire of their smoldering shared attraction. Ving Rhames, Steve Zahn, and Don Cheadle co-star; Steven Soderbergh directs.

Sleepless Night (2011) Beginning with a bloody shoot out in the streets, this tautly paced thriller follows Vincent, an undercover police office whose allegiance is called into question when a bust goes bad. When a drug lord kidnaps his teenaged son, Vincent can't go to his cop colleagues and so must infiltrate the kingpin's nightclub to get his boy back. This crime thriller out of France has been universally cheered by critics, and described as a mash-up of Die Hard, 24 and Taken. What else could you possibly want? Tomer Sisley stars; Frédéric Jardin directs.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Tommy Wirkola, the writer-director of the Nazi zombie horror-comedy Dead Snow, makes his English-language debut with this steam punk-influenced take on the classic fairy tale. Here a grown Hansel & Gretel are bounty hunters whose specialty is tracking and burning the nefarious witches that capture and kill young children. Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton and Famke Janssen co-star.

I've argued Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is secretly great, and well worth the price of admission. But if you're looking for other inventive takes on the sugary fairy tales you remember from your childhood, these should satisfy, delving into these stories Grimm origins, taking them into a modern context, and revealing what came before.

Scary Tales (2011) This 3net series explores the origins of such classic stories as Red Riding Hood, Snow White, The Pied Piper, and Hansel & Gretel. Speaking with experts they not only unfold the grisly early versions of these bedtime tales—which include far more dismemberment and cannibalism than I ever knew—with discussions of what these ghastly stories reflected in old world society. Creepy and fascinating, this show makes clear why John Updike called fairy tales "the television and pornography of an earlier age."

Once Upon a Time (2011) Dealing strictly in fantasy, this ABC drama series centers on Emma Swan, a contemporary bounty hunter with a checkered and enchanted past. When the son she gave up for adoption finds her, she's shocked at his claims that he comes from a town under a spell and that she is the daughter of Snow White, destined to set the fairy tale inhabitants free from the reign of an evil witch. This one's a bit slow to start, but balancing its modern-mystery narrative with flashbacks to familiar stories told with a fresh and fierce perspective, it soon gets too good to turn away from. The first season, which is now streaming, boasts appearances from Snow White, Rumplestiltskin, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and many more. Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin and Robert Carlyle co-star.

Neverland (2011) Serving as a prequel to the classic tale of Peter Pan, this two-part mini-series posits Peter in Victorian-era London, where he's the second in command to a band of boy pickpockets led by the wily adult crook, Jimmy Hook. But their bond is tested when a magical orb whisks these lost boys to a planet far away, where pirates, fairies and Indians promise plenty of adventure. Rhys Ifans, Anna Friel and Charlie Rowe star; but best of all Bob Hoskins plays Smee, reprising the role he played in the 1991 Peter Pan sequel Hook!

Movie 43

In this collection of comedy vignettes, a bunch of stars gather to do unspeakable things to shock and amuse you. Dennis Quaid, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Halle Berry, Emma Stone and many, many more co-star.

By most accounts Movie 43 is downright unwatchable, full of gross-out gags and few laughs. Thankfully, Netflix has plenty of comedies to choose from, including the three star-stuffed ensemble comedies below that are wild, raunchy and plenty of fun.

Wet Hot American Summer (2001) This cult classic spoofs the camp-centered movies of the 1980s with a culmination of wacky clichéd plotlines like the geek gets the girl, outsiders save the day, opposites attract, and plenty of sex-related shenanigans. Like Movie 43 it boasts plenty of stars, but whether its Elizabeth Banks covered in BBQ sauce, Paul Rudd having a lunch tray tantrum, or Amy Poehler and Bradley Cooper having a talent show-related meltdown, none of these celebs have anything to be embarrassed about here. Michael Ian Black, Ken Marino, David Hyde Pierce, Janeane Garofalo, and Christopher Meloni co-star; David Wain directs.

A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (2011) Its title promises a wild ride, and its cast delivers. The story centers on a batch of thirty-something friends who decide to have one final summer blowout when their traditional summer retreat is put up for sale. With all the ragers the crew has throw, there's only one line left to cross: group sex. Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Bibb, Nick Kroll, Tyler Labine, Lucy Punch, Will Forte, and Martin Starr co-star; Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck write and direct.

Butter (2011) This overlooked comedy centers on a the quirky American subculture of competitive butter sculptors. Jennifer Garner stars as a domineering housewife who sees butter carving as her path to the White House. But her plans to dominate the competition are threatened by a revenge seeking stripper (Olivia Wilde) and an orphaned butter-carving prodigy (Yara Shahidi). Alicia Silverstone, Rob Corddry, Kristen Schaal, Ty Burrell, and Hugh Jackman co-star; Jim Field Smith directs.

I know. It's officially "rotten" with an 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's stupid, silly, and insanely violent, and so was understandably shuffled off into January, a dumping ground for movies Hollywood doesn't know how to sell. I'll be the first to admit, it's a dumb movie. But if loving Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Paramount Pictures seems to have suspected critics by and large wouldn't care for Norwegian writer-director Tommy Wirkola's English-language debut, as press screenings for the film were notoriously hard to come by. This is why fellow bloggers/critics, Rudie Obias, Angie Han and Perri Nemiroff and I braved the insanely cold temperatures Friday to see the movie on its opening night. Our theater was far from packed, and we all agreed our expectations were low after the release's repeated delays and the bad reviews our colleagues had posted. But hey, Jeremy Renner and R-rated action, how bad could it be? The answer was pretty bad, but also a bit brilliant.

When the lights came up, three of the four of us confessed we enjoyed the flick for its wild and weird sensibilities. It was fun and a satisfying night out at the movies. But the more I thought about Hansel & Gretel, the more its poor reputation bothered me. Sure it's silly and there are some issues with the second act, but there are some things that make it totally worth the price of admission. In fact, there are ten of them.

1. The movie knows what it is. From its title to its gruesome opening title sequence and the gleefully audacious violence throughout, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters knows it is to be the ballsy cousin to the PG-13 rated fairy tale adventures like Snow White and the Huntsman. It's meant to be outrageous and for adults only, and it owns that.

2. It revels in its R-rating. Not only is there a bit of bawdy nudity (which elicited excited "Ooos" from our audience) and well-placed f-bombs, but also there's plenty of violence that is giddy in its gore. This includes a sequence where a rampaging troll squishes a band of men into puddles of blood and brain matter with his bare hands and a well-placed stomp.

3. The violence is inventive. There's been plenty of bloodshed in the movies of January 2013, but none has been so entertaining as this. With steampunk-inspired weapons and grimly spun traps, Hansel and Gretel tear into witches in a way that seems out of exploitation movies and anime. It's bonkers and bloody fun.

4. Its humor is deranged. If you've seen Wirkola's Nazi-zombie movie Dead Snow, you probably expected nothing less. And you won't be disappointed here. For instance, there's a scene as seen in the trailer where Hansel positions an admirer to block him from incoming viscera as a hunter explodes, keeping this witch hunter clean.

5. Hansel suffers from diabetes. It's sort of his kryptonite, and its use as a plot point is both absurd and hilarious. Also, his insulin works like spinach does to Popeye. What's not to love?

6. Jeremy Renner gets roughed up. I count myself as a big Renner fan, and recognize he's probably less than thrilled that this movie has followed The Avengers, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and The Bourne Legacy. Still, few actors are as fun to watch engaging in action scenes where they take hard hits. Here Hansel gets pounded by super-powered witches and battered by trees, and Renner makes it as hilarious as it is cringe-inducing.

7. Gretel's no pushover. Played by Gemma Arterton, Gretel is a powerful warrior. She not only has a deadly aim with her crossbow, but also is treated like an equal to the male characters. In one scene, she's ambushed by a bunch of local men, and the blows come hard and fast with no punches pulled. It was thrilling to see a fairy tale heroine actually get to kick some ass. (Looking at you, Snow White and the Huntsman.)

8. Peter Stormare commits self-plagiarism. Most times repeating a performance might be a bad thing, but Stormare's manic and power-hungry villain Cavaldi was my favorite part of Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm. While that fantasy feature has a lot in common with Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters--down to much of the plot—I was most thrilled to see Stormare with ridiculous facial hair and an audacious accent to match playing the thorn in the side of the film's witch hunters.

9. The witches are wonderful. Famke Janssen is clearly having a blast playing the seductive and deeply evil Muriel, who can shape shift from a beautiful woman to a cracked and wretched crone with ease. Similarly, the other witches seemed wildly deadly. They have immense strength, run like werewolves, and have looks that are the stuff of nightmares. A sequence involving a sprawling coven made me wish I could pause to take in all the cool, creative and creepy character designs.

10. Hansel and Gretel don't give a shit. While some didn't care for these sibling's blasé attitude about slaying witches, I found their smugness funny and fitting for the film. In the end, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is the honey badger of movies. You can call it crazy or nasty or stupid. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters doesn't care. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters doesn't give a shit.

Seeing a movie in 3D IMAX is a little bit like having your cake and eating it, too. Studios continue to experiment with both formats to see which fit the modern audience’s needs best. And while some movies choose one over the other, the rare beast blasts a 3D image across the larger-than-usual IMAX screen.

After a lengthy delay (the movie first was expected in theaters in March 2012), Tommy Wirkola’s Hansel and Gretel 3D played IMAX screens starting this past weekend. (It actually won the box office with an estimated $19 million.) Word of mouth might have you wondering if the horror/fairy-tale hybrid is worth the price of the extra 3D ticket. Fair question. Here’s what we discovered.

Does 3D Fit?

?What’s the point of updating a classic fairy tale like Hansel and Gretel if you’re not going to find a fresh angle? For Witch Hunters, Wirkola and his crew go dark and angry, tapping into the vengeful hate Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) feel after surviving their near-fatal encounter with a witch to create an explosive horror thriller. The scope of H&G isn’t massive – the movie contains the action to a small, rural community and a tract of haunted forest where a powerful being (Famke Janssen) is preparing for a blood moon. But Hansel and Gretel’s “high-tech” weaponry puts the 3D to good use by bringing the gory kills off the screen, much to the audience’s delight.

Planning & Effort?

?Knowing that the hook of H&G is his ability to exploit 3D to soup up his horror thrills, Wirkola does a decent job during his action sequences of firing bullets, arrows, blades and flaming objects directly at his audience. When our protagonists are going toe-to-toe with various supernatural forces, the planning behind the 3D in this movie is evident. A glaring problem of the movie is that there aren’t enough action sequences, though, and the movie’s dragged down into the mud and filth of its dreary visual palette when creatures aren’t being eviscerated. So while the action scenes are well planned, the movie needed more of them to take full advantage of the 3D technology.

Before the Window?

?This category refers to the objects that seem to come off the screen and reach the audience, and that’s the 3D H&G specializes in. Our warriors point weaponry at targets, prompting crossbows and arrows to stick out at audience members. A massive troll treats an enemy like a baseball, knocking him into our laps. Bullets and blades are thrown our way. The “before the window” 3D in H&G is actually pretty good … better than I expected it to be.

Beyond the Window

?This is the depth-of-focus question that allows us to grade how the 3D enhances the image inside of the scene, and not off of the screen. Here, H&G doesn’t look any different from a standard 2D movie. Admittedly, animation usually looks best beyond the window, unless we’re referring to rare features like Ang Lee’s Life of Pi or – of course – James Cameron’s Avatar. Hansel and Gretel does not live up to those expectations, concentrating mostly on jolting its audience with things that occasionally jump off the screen at us.

Brightness

?Oh, this is going to hurt, H&G. Wirkola’s movie is dreary and ugly, from a visual standpoint. The leads are cloaked in black leather, which blends with the dark woods in which they fight. The villages are muddy and messy. The witches’ lairs are dank and dark. None of this helps the 3D, of course. The tone of the movie is supposed to be dark, but 3D works best when the screen is saturated in light. Do the math.

The Glasses Off Test

?Ironically, one ear piece on my 3D glasses broke halfway through H&G, so I was forced to watch a good chunk of the film’s second half with the glasses off for long chunks. The good news for me is that very little looked different. The screen rarely went blurry … which means the amount of 3D happening on screen was minimal. That’s bad news for the audience who is ponying up more cash for a 3D ticket. Yes, during the action sequences, the screen blurred as Wirkola enhanced his visuals. But for lengthy sections of H&G, the screen looked normal with the glasses off.

Audience Health?

Wirkola’s attempt at 3D isn’t immersive. He’s not plunging his camera into and out of various action scenes, the way Lee does for Life of Pi or Steven Spielberg mdid in his animated The Adventures of Tintin. His approach to 3D takes a step back from the action, allowing items to fly out toward us. But the camera stays pretty stationary, and we’re not roller-coasting around in dizzying intervals in an attempt to replicate a battle without leaving out theater seats. Very few of the 3D battles in H&G will have you leaning over your popcorn bag and losing your lunch, so the movie earns a pretty decent Health score.

Final Verdict: Hansel and Gretel wasn’t hastily retrofitted to 3D by Paramount in an attempt to grab more cash. The story always carried the promise of 3D, but Wirkola seems to be a student of old horror 3D, where the camera stays stationary and objects fly at us. I think, by now, audiences have graduated past that point, so the 3D in H&G might be viewed as a bit of a disappointment. Couple that with the ugly, dark visuals, and this isn’t best 3D experience you are going to have at the movies. You’ll probably get just as much out of Wirkola’s movie if you buy the 2D movie ticket and watch Hansel and Gretel dispose of witches in standard, conventional two-dimensions.

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Those who see Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters in (3D) theaters will be treated to a four-minute preview of the anticipated G.I. Joe follow-up G.I. Joe: Retaliation. With this news comes a preview of that preview, which includes some serious ninja action and a glimpse of Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson.

When G.I. Joe: Retaliation's release date was moved from Summer 2012 to March 2013 last spring, we also learned that the delay would be used to convert the film to 3D. Today, Paramount Pictures, MGM and Skydance Productions announced that they'll be giving people a look at the finished product with "exclusive 3D footage" in a 4-minute preview of G.I. Joe: Retaliation set to play in IMAX 3D, RealD 3D and digital 3D theaters before Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters, which makes its theatrical debut this weekend (January 25.) Break.com shared the preview below:

It begins with some serious ninja fighting, which leads in to the shot of London under attack (and seeming to collapse), after which we get the hero shot and Johnson talking to Bruce Willias about saving the world. Cut to guns, a tank, explosions, a car chase and more guns. That's just what fits into a minute and a half preview, so there's probably even more where that came from too.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation arrives in theaters March 29 and serves as a follow-up to G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra. In the sequel, the characters are back to fighting Cobra and also "the threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence." And it'll all be happening in 3D, which fans can get a peek at if they head to the theaters this week or at any point during Hansel & Gretel's theatrical run.

The winter movie season is picking up steam. (One thing I love about writing this column is I can always start off with the (fill in the blank) movie season and be somewhat correct. Just another reason movies are the gift that keeps giving.) This week we’ve got some kids hunting for witches, ensemble casts and Statham just kind of doing the same thing he always does.

Just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up on the Tomatometer. Let's take a look at what This Rotten Week has to offer.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

It’s a fairy tale resurgence! Man fairy tales are so f@#$ing hot right now. They’re like #Yolo and Instagram combined. With a perfect combination of dwindling creative expectations in Hollywood and having no obligation (I’m assuming) to pay royalty fees to the long dead Grimm brothers, modern revamping of fairy tales seems the way to go. We’ve already covered Snow White (Mirror, Mirror-50%, Snow White and the Huntsman-48%), Little Red Riding Hood (Red Riding Hood-11%), Beauty and the Beast (Beastly-20%), along with the upcoming Jack the Giant Slayer and television shows like Grimm and Once Upon a Time just delving into the genre as a whole. It’s an exciting time if you are the kind of dope that likes fairy tales.

In an effort to capitalize on this mindless rebranding of stories no one in modern society really cares about anymore I’m considering a couple of movie pitches for fairy tale movies. Tell me what you think:

Fairy tale (Possible working titles) - Quick plot points

Three Little Pigs (Wolf or A House of Brick) - Psycho killer on the loose, stalking three brothers, the last one a hardcore militia type who’s booby trapped his house to fend off the killer. Think R-rated Home Alone.

Goldilocks - (Just Right) - Young female thief hired to take down a mansion only to find herself wanting to become part of the somewhat dysfunctional family. In robbing the house she becomes “attached” to the family’s young child through pictures and diaries.

Puss in Boots (Puss’n Boots) - Porno flick

In this latest modern look at fairy tales Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton are the titular characters armed with an assortment of nifty, futuristically-retro weapons and on the hunt for the witches lurking in the woods around whatever small village they live. Directed by Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow-66%), the movie looks like it wants desperately to interweave comedy and action while “updating” a dated story. Frankly, it looks fairly dumb. Studios should go with one of my ideas instead. The Rotten Watch for Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is 45%

It’s a cast of thousands! Well not quite, but it might as well be. The ensemble cast, loosely connected storyline, comedy can be fraught with critical peril. Sure you’ve got the Love Actually’s (63%) of the world that not only didn’t get lost in the tangle of famous faces, but also somehow is gaining steam as a go-to Christmas movie. But then other holiday pieces of s@#$ like Valentines’s Day (18%) and New Years Eve (7%) even out the ensemble goodwill. So who knows what to make of these movies?

Granted, Movie 43 appears a very different flick than those mentioned above both in it’s wider scope and Farrelly brothers brand (Peter Farrelly spearheaded the production) of off-color humor and dick//fart/poop jokes. So again, I’m confused.

Typically I spend this time discussing the director, or some of the key players but honestly, that’s a fools errand with this movie. To get the breadth and scope of the players involved just take a gander at the film’s Wikipedia page. Look at that list! More than twelve directors, literally a cast of thousands and Gerard Butler as a testicle-biting leprechaun. I mean what do you want from me here? On the surface I’d say this movie has bit off more than it can chew simply from a logistical standpoint. With this many moving parts, visions, and writing styles I’d say putting together a coherent flick is next to impossible. On the other hand, the home-schooling parents as typical bullying teenagers and Terrence Howard-as-basketball coach arcs look worth it on their own. I have a feeling there will be aspects and performances that work well independently, but asking the whole movie to stick as a collective unit is almost too difficult a landing to stick. I’ll put it right at the middle and cross my fingers. The Rotten Watch for Movie 43 is 50%

You don’t write a column like this for a couple of years without getting a chance to poke fun at Jason Statham. I’ve covered his bloody, revenge-taking, wiseass, high body count career plenty here, in this one, and way back in the early days of This Rotten Week. Statham is just too easy a mark, but the good news is I think he knows it. He’s been typecast in the best way possible and he’s scowling all the way to the bank.

I don’t want to shock you, but in this new flick Statham plays a snarky bloke out for revenge against some bad guy who’s wronged him. The left him for dead, which about the last thing you want to do with Jay. He then gets to do usual Statham things like kill any person who stands in his way, rock the shaved head/ five o’clock shadow look (I employ something similar to slightly less fanfare), crack one liners, stare at J-Lo. You know, basically the same thing he does all the time. Is it even worth going back through his resume? We all know what’s going on here.

Director Taylor Hackford (a guy who received some Oscar nominations with Ray -81% and used that collateral to follow up with something called Love Ranch-12%) now gets to handle Statham which is probably about the easiest gig in Hollywood. Just give him a gun and a vendetta and stay the f@#$ out of the way. The Rotten Watch for Parker is 38%

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Recapping last week:

The good times continue to turn in endless rotations (or however that saying goes). Another strong week for the Rotten Watch starting with Last Stand (Predicted: 64% Actual: 57%). Full disclosure: I had this flick slightly higher, in the low seventies, but editor du jour Katey Rich talked me down a little bit. And its a good thing she did. Hey, this thing’s a team effort. Usually it’s just me as the starter, team captain and MVP, but occasionally someone comes in off the bench to hit the game winner. Katey stepped up big.

Meanwhile, Mama (Predicted: 67% Actual: 64%) was another booyah. This one has an outside shot of being a direct hit with a few more reviews. 2013 might just be my year.

And finally, my sentiments about Broken City (Predicted: 48% Actual: 25%) were on the mark, I just didn’t think it would dip this low. Not with guys like Russell Crowe and Mark Wahlberg on board. It never really looked good, but in the bottom quarter on the Tomatometer is dipping into toilet.

Next time around we take a bullet to the head, meet some stand up guys, and follow some warm bodies. It’s going to be a Rotten Week!

It's been a very rough road to the movie theater for the upcoming action film Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. While the project was supposed to be one of the titles that helped make 2012 the year of Jeremy Renner - along with The Avengers, The Bourne Legacy, and late 2011 entry Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - Paramount Pictures decided very early in the year to bump the film from its original March 2, 2012 release date to January 11, 2013. And guess what? It's now ready to move back again - though this time it won't be a 10 month shift.

Deadline has gotten word that Paramount has once again pushed Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, this time from January 11, 2013 to January 25, 2013. While no official explanation is given for the change, the site does say that the movie will now also be getting an IMAX release, which very well could be the reason. While the picture was originally going to do battle against the action comedy Stand Up Guys and the period drama Gangster Squad, it will now go up against the Jason Statham's Parker and the comedy anthology Movie 43.

A riff on the classic fairy tale, the film follows a grown up Hansel (Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Aterton) who have become professional witch hunters following their traumatic experience as children. Famke Janssen plays the central villain, a witch named Muriel, while the supporting cast is rounded out by names like Peter Stormare, Thomas Mann, Zoe Bell and Derek Mears. Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) is making his English-language debut with the movie and co-wrote the script with Dante Harper. Head over to our Blend Film Database for more about Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.

You may have noticed a surprising lack of promotion for Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. While the movie was supposed to be part of 2012's Jeremy Renner action trilogy (along with The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy), the only thing we've actually seen from the film was a still that came out in early December. We have already seen trailers for upcoming titles like The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, Prometheus, all of which were scheduled to be released after Hansel and Gretel. Now the riddle has been solved: the movie won't be coming out in 2012.

Box Office Mojo has gotten word that Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters has been pushed back almost an entire year, from March 2, 2012 to January 11, 2013. The movie was originally going to up against Dr. Seuss' The Lorax and the Todd Phillips-produced Project X, but currently has no competition at its new date (obviously that will change). As of now we don't know why Paramount Pictures decided to push the movie back, but we may find out over the coming weeks. Other Paramount release date shifts include A Thousand Words, the new Eddie Murphy comedy, which has been moved from March 23 to April 20, and Jeff Who Lives At Home, which has been pushed back two weeks from March 2 to March 16.

This doesn't sound too good for the project. While the cast is great (with Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Peter Stormare, Zoe Bell, and Derek Mears on board), and Tommy Wirkola is an interesting choice as a director (you may know him as the filmmaker behind Dead Snow), January is a notorious dumping ground where studios release films that they don't feel have potential either critically or commercially. With any luck, Paramount just saw the success of The Devil Inside, realized that there is potential in the first month of the year, and is trying to take advantage of it.

In theory I have nothing against Jeremy Renner being anointed as Matt Damon's replacement in the Bourne franchise, to start next year with The Bourne Legacy. Renner is an undeniably talented actor with a range we've probably only just begun to see, and yet another unconventional kind of 21st century action hero in the mold of Christian Bale or Damon himself. (Yes, those are both white men with significant muscle mass, but that's another editorial). Fresh off back-to-back Oscar nominations and a sterling reputation, he's exactly the kind of talented up and comer you want to see rewarded with the steady work and big bucks of his own franchise.

Except… we already saw him get rewarded with that, when he was cast as Hawkeye in The Avengers. And again when he cast as Tom Cruise's heir apparent in Mission: Impossible-- Ghost Protocol. And somewhere in there he also got the lead opposite Gemma Arterton, another star-of-the-moment, in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, which is such franchise bait it may as well be the name of a TV show. The Bourne role would make for four potential franchises he's at the center of, and guarantee he won't be in a movie made for less than $100 million until, what, 2015?

Right now all of this sounds great to moviegoers who saw Renner in The Town and The Hurt Locker and want to know what that intense guy is gonna do next. Right now we're not sick of Jeremy Renner-- but we're practically guaranteed to be after these four films are released within eight months of each other. Jeremy Renner will go almost instantly from "Hey, I'll see that guy in anything" to "Dear God, I'm sick of seeing that guy in everything." And he'll be partially to blame for taking the roles, sure, but also victim of a system that auditions countless actors for roles, then casts the same 5 guys who seem the most "marketable."

Look at the names that were also in the running for Bourne-- Joel Edgerton, Dominic Cooper, Taylor Kitsch, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Mackie. Or the guys who made it to the final round of consideration for Ghost Protocol-- Kevin Zegers, Christopher Egan, poor Anthony Mackie again. None of these guys have Oscar nominations or Renner's name recognition, but they also don't have three other franchises to carry, or the potential to wear out their welcome before the movie is even released. Mackie's fate in particular breaks my heart; he and Renner were a remarkable team in The Hurt Locker and shared many of the film's accolades, but fate and the cruel reality of race-based casting has losing out to his former co-star twice now for roles that could have transformed his career.

Plenty of actors have weathered this kind of overexposure and survived. Jude Law, ubiquitous in 2004, is a delightful and crucial element of the Sherlock Holmes films, and Colin Farrell, unfairly maligned in the early 00s as a waste-of-space party guy, knocks every single one of his recent performances out of the past. I have no doubt that Renner will put a worthwhile performance into every single one of these films-- even the few seconds of him as Hawkeye in Thor felt electric-- and will earn the rainfall of paychecks coming his way; if we're lucky, one or two of these movies will actually be good. But I won't stop wondering about the also-rans who could have carried these films equally as well, and dreading the day that seeing Renner's face on a movie poster is exhausting rather than exciting. Hollywood, in its unique and infuriating way, has figured out one thing we moviegoers like, and is rewarding us by bludgeoning us to death with him.

Is there anyone out there on the west coast that can just say “no” to a project? Just reading the description of Hansel and Gretel in 3D will make your head spin with just the sheer ridiculousness of it. Seriously, a live-action, action-packed, FX-laden adaptation of a Grimm's Fairy Tale? Did we not learn from the failure of Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm that this take on fairy tales just doesn’t work? Not to mention that they’ll be adding gods and monsters into a centuries old fairy tale...

ComingSoon has it that the film will be produced under The Institute, co-founded by none other than Michael Bay, whose name will hopefully be kept far, far away from this film if the company wants it to be good at all. Of course, if making a good movie was their concern, they probably wouldn’t bother with this idea in the first place.

The real reason this idea seems so terrible right off the bat is the god awful poster released for the film. H&G isn’t schedule to shoot until spring of next year and already they’re churning out posters for it? Uncalled for. Plus, it’s just a picture of a house in the woods looking all dark and creepy with some Harry Potter and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory text slapped on there to liven things up in a terrible “this contrasts way too hard” sort of way. There’s already no creativity behind this project, and the only people signed on to do it are producers Scott Gardenhour and Kira Madallo Sesay.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this movie gets buried before it even gets started. Here’s the teaser poster. Bask in the unbridled ineptitude.