What a difference a half decade can make. It was Friday, Oct. 1, 2010 when our little show that could launched on 92.5FM CFBX at 10 p.m. and the world changed for Shawn and I. We were called Film Reviews from the Basement back then, and had spent one season slugging it out as a moderately successful podcast. Then Steve Marlow and Brant Zwicker of The X (pictured above) took a chance on a couple of aging film geeks -- we had originally approached them about having some ads for the podcast play on the air, they had a better idea -- and the rest is history.

It needs to be said right out the gate, Tommy Wirkola 's Dead Snow is the cat's ass. Based on the strength of that film alone, I had an inkling that Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters would be something special. That's why I pimped the fuck out of it on the site sight unseen. Now it's time to put the Jeremy Renner /Gemma Arterton fairy-tale-action-horror flick on the chopping block. Hansel and Gretel are bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that might hold a secret to their past. First off, kudos to Paramount Pictures and MGM for showing faith in this tough-to-market movie and releasing it in the hard R-rated version it was intended. There's no way, and I mean no way, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters would fly in a trimmed down, PG-13 version. No way. This is a bloody, foul mouthed and fun as fuck flick that pulls no punches and never ceases to enter...

We pimped the shit out of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters here in The Basement, but have yet to actually see it. I know, we suck. Wait . . . no we don't! We're just a couple of busy motherfuckers! Wanna fight about it? Enough people DID see Tommy Wirkola 's action/horror flick to convince Paramount Pictures to make a second one. Actually, the film has made more than $200 million worldwide on an alleged budget of about $50 Million. Not bad. Question is will Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton return. Both are rapidly climbing the Hollywood A-list and might not have time for such silly things as hunting witches. Then again, a franchise is a franchise. And, as Shawn and I discuss this week (Thursday to be exact) more A-listers need to do B-movies. They just do. In this spin on the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel are now bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that...

And that's pretty much all that's different from the domestic poster for the upcoming Jeremy Renner-Gemma Arterton horror/comedy Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. Oh, and some of the writing is in Japanese or some shit. But hey, any excuse to show off some Arterton, right? Right? And yeah, I'm still looking forward to Tommy Wirkola's spin on the classic story of siblings and witches. Only now Hansel and Gretel are all grown up and kicking witch ass. The lovely Famke Janssen plays a witch named Muriel. The film's release date has been kicked around more than a red-headed stepchild, but we'll finally get to see the R-rated tale on the big screen Jan. 11, 2013. Until then, take another look at the red-band trailer for said film. Cheers to Shock Till You Drop for the poster.

It's never a good sign when a movie's release date gets bounced around more than a New Orleans whore, but I have faith in the upcoming horror comedy Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. For one, director Tommy Wirkola did a bang-up job mixing comedy and gore in the Nazi zombie movie Dead Snow. Secondly, Jeremy Renner is a damn fine actor. Thirdly, Gemma Arterton is just damn fine. Add an appropriate level of camp and violence and you're good to G-O. I think Paramount Pictures and MGM don't know what to do with the project. Blood, humour and children in jeopardy don't sell well. When mixed that is. But at least the studios are trying with this new red-band trailer, which offers plenty of everything I mentioned above. In this dark spin on the fairy tale, siblings Hansel and Gretel are a formidable team of bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world. Whether or not it's any good will be answered when the Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters hits...

This is a movie that's been on our radar for some time now and I'm fucking psyched to finally get a look at some footage! Yup, it's the old story of Hansel and Gretel or, in this case, what happened to those two wee children after the gingerbread house/witch incident. Seems they had a hard time getting over almost being eaten and are venting on witches everywhere. I dig. Directed by Dead Snow's Tommy Wirkola, this is going to be an R-rated outing that mixes humour and over-the-top violence. Again, I dig. The preview below isn't going to be everyone's pint of ale, but I might drag my ass to the theatre to check this out on Jan. 11, 2013. Jeremy Renner, fresh of his stint in The Bourne Legacy, and former Bond girl Gemma Arterton, star.

Yup, there's a movie featuring classic children's characters who grow up to be witch hunters. And it stars The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner and Quantum of Solace's Gemma Arterton. And it's directed by the guy who made Basement fave Dead Snow. Pretty good pedigree, yes? Indeed. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters was actually due out March 2, a few scant months down the road with nary a trailer to judge the movie by in sight. But today Paramount Pictures announced it was pushing the action/horror/comedy back until Jan. 11, 2013. Usually a schedule shift means bad scoobies for the movie in question. But buzz on Hansel and Gretel has been quite good and Renner is a star in the making. One can speculate Paramount wants to take advantage of his upcoming turns in The Avengers and The Bourne Movie Without Matt Damon to increase his popularity. Tommy Wirkola's film takes place 15 years after the siblings' troubling gingerbread house encounter and finds them as b...

Episode I: Centurion and The Disappearance of Alice Creed Presented for your listening pleasure: an encore presentation of the first episode of Film Reviews From the Basement. Films on the chopping block include the Romans vs. Picts epic Centurion and the kidnap thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed starring Bond babe Gemma Arterton. There's also movie news and music from Marilyn Manson and Shinedown. You can hear it here !

Centurion Jason: The latest effort from writer/director Neil Marshall highlights his talent for crafting exciting action and suspense sequences but lacks the tightness of script he showed in earlier efforts Dog Soldiers and The Descent. Events don't happen out of logic, but because the screenplay requires them to. As a result, Centurion feels contrived and isn't as much fun to watch as Marshall's earlier work. I hope he abandons his loftier ambitions and returns to his low budget roots, much like a certain Spider-Man director. A Bad rating from me. Shawn: Why do you need to start such an exciting movie with a slow, slow, slow opening credit sequence? Whoa. Blood. What a great movie!  The story was awesome, and I went through most of the movie not really knowing who to cheer for. Actually, there wasn't really a side you could pick. This was a cool emotion, because the vengeance by either side was served up with a fantastic amount of blood. Ha ha! A Good review fr...

Not really, but we here in The Basement have been distracted by work, wives, and other mundane life priorities that have kept us from posting on this blog. To our regular readers: sorry. And thanks to Patrick for keeping the Facebook page loaded with quality film-related links to read. But we are back! We have two more episodes in the can. The first will be up Monday with reviews of Defendor and The Descent Part 2. Then, in two weeks, we've got District 13: Ultimatum and The Lovely Bones. Not wanting to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we're also lining up reviews of the cult horror films Midnight Movie and The Poughkeepsie Tapes. Very excited about those. If anyone has a film they'd like us to review, please drop us a line. Moving right along, the wife and I checked out Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time recently. Here's a micro review: "The film is one of the best pieces of pure entertainment I have seen in a while. To be honest, I liked it more than all thre...