Blu-ray

Following in the footsteps of Snow White and the Huntsman and Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters offers a more action-packed update of a classic fairy tale. Thankfully, as you might expect from the young director who gave us 2009's gonzo Nazi zombie flick Dead Snow, this retooling of The Brothers Grimm's story is far less po-faced than its forgettable predecessors.

Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton star as the siblings who, after running afoul of a witch as children, now dedicate their lives to dressing in leather and hunting down witches with the aid of anachronistic weaponry such as automatic crossbows and a hand-cranked Gatling gun.

It is, of course, completely stupid. But luckily we're talking about Army of Darkness levels of stupidity here, rather than Van Helsing.

Renner and Arterton are clearly having plenty of fun goofing around and playing with all of the weapons, while Famke Janssen gets to ham it up to the high heavens as the film's big bad witch. Meanwhile, director Tommy Wirkola stages some impressive action scenes and keeps his tongue wedged firmly in his cheek, ensuring that the film's lashings of gore simply add to its madcap sense of fun, rather than feeling particularly grisly.

Picture: This set offers separate platters for the 2D and 3D versions – and in terms of technical quality both hold up well. Details and intricate textures are evident throughout the 'flat' AVC 2.40:1 1080p encode and its stereoscopic MVC incarnation, as are very strong black levels and a warm colour palette.

If we have one complaint, it's that the 3D version is lacking in overall impact. There are some nifty examples of negative parallax, with a variety of weapons and exploding body parts flying out of the screen, and the 3D does give a slightly greater sense of space to some of the exterior settings. However, there's little here to make it really stand out from the film's 2D incarnation.
Picture rating: 4/5

Audio: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunter's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack is every bit as big, brash and bold as you'd expect. Foley effects are spread all around the soundfield and pan rapidly from speaker to speaker, dialogue is giving plenty of weight and space and there's plenty of bass to back up the action. Not subtle, but highly enjoyable.
Audio rating: 4.5/5

Extras: The 3D platter is devoid of extras and only features the original cinema cut of the film. Meanwhile the set's 2D disc serves up a 10-minute longer extended cut of the film, plus a trio of brief behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Extras rating: 1.5/5

We say: This goofy and gory fantasy flick delivers a strong AV performance. Shame about the extras, though

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 3D, Paramount, All-region BD, £25 Approx
HCC VERDICT: 3/5