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The famous Victorian ressurrectionists Burke and Hare have appeared in many guises on the screen, from the 1971 horror film Burke and Hare to the 1945 picture The Body Snatcher which starred Boris Karloff and, in a minor role, Bela Legosi. Yet what sets John Landis’s (American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers) new film apart is its tone, for here the director believes to have found comedy gold in perhaps the blackest of forms.
Burke (Simon Pegg) and Hare (Andy Serkis) are a couple of unemployed labourers whose money problems are solved when by chance they discover the lucrative trade of selling the recently deceased for dissection. However, problems soon arise when a steady supply of cadavers fails to appear, and so they turn to murder. This scenario is wisely tampered by a deliberate and openly admitted breaking from any form of fact for the vast majority of the film, which removes many of the grisly details of the original crimes. But whatever scenes you invent for the film, it still hardly seems perfect comedic material, but then again, neither did American Werewolf. However, that film was made over a quarter of a century ago and in that time it appears John Landis’s powers of direction have declined. This is not to say that the film is directed badly, but simply that it fails to capture the tension and excitement of much of his earlier work, and instead simply meanders from one joke to the next, as well as suffering from the fact that much of the comedy is often rather low brow and lacks many real laugh out loud moments.
However, the film does benefit from enjoyable performances by Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis, who against all expectations turn their characters into likeable individuals, who you do end up caring about no matter how many old ladies they murder. But neither them ever manage to steal the show thanks to film’s wonderful line up of British talent that that adds much to the humour and enjoyment of the film, featuring small but highly enjoyable roles from many actors, ranging from Bill Bailey to Christopher Lee. Yet, the most surprising individual to turn up amongst the murder and mayhem is Ronny Corbett who gives a very entertaining performance as the captain of the three man strong Edinburgh militia who are attempting to put a stop to the protagonists' illegal activities. All of which works rather well and is certainly amusing, but it can be seen to detract from the central plot with so many memorable minor characters.
Burke and Hare is not a bad film and is generally amusing, but as a whole is neither a brilliant comedy or a brilliant film. It is mildly entertaining but never rises above this, with the resultant film feeling rather disappointing and definitely nothing special. However, if in the end you just want an entertaining comedy to pass ninety minutes, you could do much worse.
See Burke and Hare at City Screen. Check out their website for times and further information.
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