Review of Burke & Hare (2010) by Laura S — 29 Oct 2010

Burke and Hare was a fun movie, telling the story of two real-life murderers and bodysnatchers from the 19th century. The movie is very entertaining, and the actors do a splendid job with the film. John Landis's directing makes it worthwhile, and the story itself is done very well, considering the story is based upon real events.

The characters of Burke and Hare are great: Burke (Simon Pegg) in in love with a young woman named Ginny (Isla Fisher), and helps her with her dreams by financing a play she's making with the profits from his murders, while Hare (Andy Serkis) is trying to make his dreams of owning a funeral parlour come true.

Other actors like Tom Wilkinson, Jessica Hynes and Tim Curry do their jobs just fine, and the humorous characters of Bill Bailey, Ronnie Corbett and Christopher Lee make it worth watching.

At 91 minutes, the film isn't too long by today's 2 hour standards, and is definitely not boring. However, marketing the film as a comedy was probably not a good idea; the humour is definitely few and far between, but for the most part, it's really silly comedy, and that can sometimes be the best, or the worst form of comedy. Here though, it's the best form. It's like the humour of Hanna-Barbera, where it's a silly kind of comedy, but people love it anyway.

The ending stays true to the real life events, but there's a truly amusing epilogue at the end, but I won't spoil that. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you should. But you must go with an open mind; if you are sceptical from the start, you're sure to dislike this film. But if you go expecting nothing in particular, like myself, you will find this film to be a short, but entertaining ride.