Review of Burke & Hare (2010) by Philip P — 23 Dec 2011

Wth the level of talent involved here I wanted to have a better return on the experience side of things, but "Burke & Hare" is still a ratehr solid comedy set in victorian era England. I don't know why but I love the time period despite it being made plenty clear in the film there was nothing to be envious of those living in the 19th century.

Based on the true story of one of the biggest mass murders cases of the time director John Landis (Animal House, Blues Brothers) has made a sometimes funny comedy that has its moments but for the most part drags along from one set up to the next and comes out being nothing more than average.

Certainly nothing worth dying for. Burke as portrayed by Simon Pegg and Hare who is played by a non computer generated Andy Serkis have good chemistry with one another and if anything it was nice to witness a performance by Serkis where we could actually see him in the flesh.

Indeed, that point proved to be the most intriguing bit about the whole film. Isla Fisher is thrown into the mix as an undewritten and sometimes annoying independent woman who stages an all female version of "Hamlet".

There are also great actors in supporting roles like Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry, a blink and you'll miss him Christopher Lee. Still, the riot of this whole mess is the ridiculousness of the story and the light tone with which Landis portrays it.

Its not dark enough to be a good black comedy and its just not consistently funny enough to even be considered a comedy. As a matter of fact it is hard to classify what exactly this is, but we watch it because the actors are appealing and the story is at least engaging even if they completely waste the premise.