The second red band trailer for Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is still not impressive

If a movie has a January release date, it usually means the studio is dumping the movie in a time when it knows there will be zero competition at the box office. That does not often bode well for the product on screen, either. HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS is the latest movie to suffer that particular fate, which is a shame considering Jeremy Renner is riding high on the box office success of THE AVENGERS and THE BOURNE LEGACY.

This new red band trailer just continues to show the same thing we learned about Renner during his hosting gig on Saturday Night Live: the guy is not meant for comedy. HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS seems to be going for somewhere between comedy, action, and horror, something that didn’t work to much better effect in Terry Gilliam‘s THE BROTHERS GRIMM back in 2005.

What follows feels like an extended TV spot with a couple of f-bombs and one blood splattered closing image. Not exactly selling much at this point, are we Paramount?

Plot: After getting a taste for blood as children, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) have become the ultimate vigilantes, hell bent on retribution. Now, unbeknownst to them, Hansel and Gretel have become the hunted, and must face an evil far greater than witches…their past.

HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITHC HUNTERS also stars Peter Stormare playing what appears to be the same role he had in THE BROTHERS GRIMM, Famke Janssen, and Zoe Bell. it opens in theaters on January 25, 2013 in 3D.