Escape to the Movies: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

[Le_Lisra]

Sorry I stopped watching after the initial comment re JJ Abrams, Bob you were the only person who didn't like Star Trek, this is a good choice!

Hey man, don't presume to speak for everyone.

It wasn't terrible, but at heart another sign that Star Trek is done for; just as Star Wars is. Abrams will probably do something decent, young people will learn about it all anew and the whole monster will stagnate on for more years.

It's all over, the magic is never coming back. Everyone chillout and enjoy some candy.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I already did all my Lens Flare jokes in the thread where it was announced that Abrams would be directing the Star Wars film, I don't need to make any more.

As for the Hansel and Gretel movie, well it still looks interesting to me. Don't know if I'll get to see it though.

 

[SilverStuddedSquirre]

Gotta point this out: WHY in blazing fuck is teh Director of Star Trek doing Starw Wars???

Stricly from a standpoint of Franchise: All Directorial opinions and Talents laid to rest THAT is teh question. There is agood reason different directors handle each of the Seperate Avengers, well, SEPERATELY. And Joss Whedon for all of them together.

Wars and Trek are Diametric Opposites, and should be tackled by different people, though as Somebody pointed out, Abrams basically mad a star Wars movie out of Trek Already.

I hope he does a good job, so he can be too busy to make another Trek movie, and Trek can go to somebody who can do TOS with the story it needs to back the Cast, whom I really Liked.

 

[leviadragon99]

Huh... and now I can't unsee that uncomfortable mysoginist undertone...

 

[Erttheking]

Bob, I've been watching your videos a long time but even I'm confused by the link you have between witch hunts and this movie.

Have you heard of the Salome Witch Trials?

Long story short. In Salome, Massachusetts in the 17th (or 18th, I forget) century essencally rounded up all the women who acted differently the the State thought they should, tried them in a kangaroo court with evidence that would convict anyone breathing of being a witch, and then executed them.

It is still a sensitive subject around some people I know.

You do know that some guys were rounded up too right? Does the phrase "More weight" sound familiar?

??? *thinking**thinking****thinking*

Yes, took me a minute to get that reference, your right. They did add more weight to the "interrogation" device until the person confessed to witchcraft. Everyone confessed eventually.

Correction, almost all of them confessed eventually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Corey

He found a loophole so that his family would get their inheritance.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

MovieBob gives us his no-holds-barred take on the latest iteration of the Hansel & Gretel story.

I haven't seen the movie, but it looked like Hansel & Gretel get a little friendly there right? I suppose them being brother and sister never entered in to anyone's mind.

 

[Ashley Blalock]

I think people are making a leap in logic to say well if one movie comes off as misogynist then all film violence towards women must be misogyny. It would be like saying if one film is black-ploitation then all films with a black leading role must be black-ploitation.

Witch is kind of a loaded word in our society so it's really hard to separate all the negative female stereotypes and how it's somehow a uniquely female evil. You can have male characters who are completely evil bastards using the worst of dark magic and it still doesn't come off with the same impact as witch.

Change the name of the film to Hansel and Gretel Monster Hunters, throw in a few male villains, and boom we wouldn't even be questioning if it's got a misogynist tone to it.

Other films use women and violence without the misogynist question. If Iron Man punches the Enchantress in an Avengers movie people aren't going to cry foul. But if the title of your film suggests that the heroes only go around killing women then the question is going to come up. Plenty of evil women in movies who didn't survive the movie and there are examples out there where a male hero was the person who killed the bad girl in the movie.

 

[Darth_Payn]

I'm pretty sure everyone remembers what the real witch hunts were like Bob, but I don't think anyone really cares in this film's context. I mean, it's not like anyone was going to this movie expecting the Spanish Inquisition.

NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!
http://youtu.be/Ixgc_FGam3s

But back to the review: way to read to much into hunting witches and stay in the context of the movie. Yes, witch hunting was a real thing in the middle ages to Enlightenment, but for Hansel & Gretel, the witches were real, scary, magic-users who were bad for the common folk. And a minute after that rant, verbally ogling Gemma Arterton in leather pants? Way to stay consistent! Pick a side already!

As for JJ Abrams landing the director gig for STAR WARS Episode VII, I'm going to wait and see how this goes. Dude's got time on his hands since FRINGE ended last week. 2009's STAR TREK felt like a Star Wars movie already while still being Trk, so I think there's nothing to worry about (yet. I'm not a bloody psychic).

 

[ensouls]

Yes, witch hunting was a real thing in the middle ages to Enlightenment, but for Hansel & Gretel, the witches were real, scary, magic-users who were bad for the common folk. And a minute after that rant, verbally ogling Gemma Arterton in leather pants? Way to stay consistent! Pick a side already!

Yeeeah. That was... that was just weird. You can look for misogyny in every stupid little thing, or you can make uncomfortable remarks about how sexy you personally find an actress, but not both.

 

[Sartan0]

I actually just got out of seeing H&G and I must say I went in with next to zero expectations and I loved it.

If you don't like gore don't see it. Otherwise give it a go. I found it to be a good ride and it did not over stay it's welcome. I got a Buffy vibe from it and the weaponry was really over the top. It was funny as well.

 

[Warachia]

So fighting witches is misogynist now?

Didn't you know? every part of fiction where someone punch a women in the face is misogynist now! Punching a demon lady in the face as it trying to eat ya? Misogyny. Kill a women in an act of revenge because she killed your family? Misogyny.

edit. And if a women kills a man? It is not misandry. It just show her as a strong independent women.

In other news, Sleeping Beauty is the most offensive movie of all time, all the well meaning women are old, unattractive, or dead, Beauty (for being pretty of course) is cursed, and the main villain was a WITCH! HOW DARE THEY! Not to mention all of the women have to sit back and let the man in the movie take the spotlight despite doing all the work! Beauty is even saved by HIM!

Seriously though, how did Bob not realize how ridiculous everything was when he was editing his video? It's ridiculous to connect a modern day movie to something that happened hundreds of years ago.

 

[Lonewolfm16]

Ummm.... I don't see how women getting beat up is misogyny. Seriously men are generally used as expendable cannon fodder in most movies, while any female on the good or bad side is almost guarenteed screen-time, and violence against women is heavily stigmatized (see: you shouldn't hit a woman, ect ect) while violence against men is not. While I haven't seen the movie I would say that allowing women to actually be hit rather than never even touched because, while women can be warriors they can't be hurt without it being controversial. Seriously we live in a age where women can be soldiers in open combat. We need to accept that they can be hurt in fiction, just like men can, without it being sexist. Also witch hunts were terrible and all but then again people honestly believed that witch-craft was both very real and very dangerous. You could claim the same about any movie featuring demons, excorcism, or vampires.

 

[Kmadden2004]

So... does this mean we're now going to have to put up with Bob trolling the new Star Wars film for the next two years, ending up in him ultimately making three videos talking about how much he hates it in the week of its release?

Y'know, like he did with Amazing Spider-Man?

 

[Grape_Bullion]

Why does a woman get punched in the face or beat up and every self righteous dork decides to hit their emergency "misogyny is here, everyone, look, this is totally misogynistic" button all the time?

 

[Kmadden2004]

What bothers me about J.J. Abrams isn't the lens flares. It's his blatant disregard for physics and continuity to make a film as dynamic as possible.

Physics? There's no place for physics in a Star Wars film!

http://youtu.be/y38J9wk9gxE?t=1m31s

 

[Nomanslander]

Ummm... why not? The only thing we really suffer from JJ Abrams movies are the cheaply string together plots (Star Treak 2009), which in the end tend to work on Fringe Logic (you don't noticed how cheap it is until you think about the next day). His work generally still has good characters, good action, and is capable of keeping us entertained throughout the entire time. Something Lucas utterly, and completely, failed at! Star Trek 2009 was still considered a good movie. Even after that whole Vulcan planet thing, most Trekkies still managed to loved the movie, and we're talking about some of the most overly obsessive and anally retentive fans in the history of nerdom here. And they LIKED IT! Can SW hardcore fans say the same about the prequels? Huh Bob? I thought not!

Oh good. Another fucking Lens flare joke. It is like it was not played out in 2009....

Thank you.

Why does a woman get punched in the face or beat up and every self righteous dork decides to hit their emergency "misogyny is here, everyone, look, this is totally misogynistic" button all the time?

Because they're suffering from what I like to call Super Nice Guy Syndrome. You see, generally with nerdy guys that suffer from insecurities over women, as a result, you might get two polarizing ugly traits beginning to develop. One being misogyny, and the other, its complete opposite. Both basically stem from frustration towards women, but in different ways. With misogyny, it's all resentment, and it's obvious. They don't like women, because the women - in their minds - don't like them. But with Super Nice Guys, you get the reverse effect where men begin to idolize the opposite gender as being something beyond human. In their minds: they can't get into relationships with women because women are too good for them; they're perfect, and should be treated as such. And that's why when they see women being treated similarly to how a man would be treated in a movie (killed, tortured, beaten up, etc), they go ballistic, and start calling out misogyny.

Now, I'm not saying Bob is part of the latter group, because he did make a pretty good point with the whole witch hunt thing, but then again... I don't know him, so I'm not going to judge. I mean he isn't calling the movie straight up misogynistic, he just seemed to be getting those type of vibes from it, knowing the dark history of Witch hunting, and all.