Burke and Hare

More Silly killers than Serial Killers

Lover: Taken from IMDB
“Can't believe some of the negativity on here and in the press. And I really don't why people are saying that it isn't funny. This is a very funny, charming film in the tradition of the old Ealing comedies. The cinema I went to see it in was packed and was laughing all the way through. How anyone can say that Landis has delivered a turkey is baffling. It's witty, well shot, got great performances and it has Ronnie Corbett! Hilarious. I think this is a film that has suffered from all of the expectation and the mass marketing. I don't think it is consistently laugh out loud movie but it is consistently funny. I'm so glad that I got the chance to see something different, other than all of the franchise crap on offer at the moment. Two thumbs up to Landis, Pegg and Serkis and of course, Mr Ronnie Corbett, long may your career continue! 4 stars!”

It was a very funny film and some of the negative press was horribly over the top, Burke and Hare is an essential for anyone who has an appreciation for British comedy.

Hater: Taken from IMDB
“what a load of 'fookin sh*%e' man'. My wife and i are both in agreement, this is without doubt the worst film we've seen this year, and almost the worst ever. Utterly awful, dreadfully dreary tale with zero soul, passion or enthusiasm. Avoid like the hangman's noose or you'll just be wasting an hour of your life. I can't believe this website is actually forcing me to write 10 lines - it's just not worth it IMDb - you're being cruel to me man, rubbing my face in it - this is adding insult to injury - I only wanted to warn the world that plague lies within this tosh, masquerading as a serious film - you' should be encouraging this.”

IMDB forces you to write 10 lines for a good reason, in the vague hope that you might write something productive. It is not so that you can un-ashamedly rip a film to pieces without thought or indeed reason! Ignore these kinds of reviews like the plague, if a film isn’t for you then you’ll know before you see it, otherwise we all know that every now again we get a turkey but by the same rule we also may stumble upon a film that becomes an instant favourite.

What I thought:
As a HUGE fan of Mr Pegg myself I was looking forward to this film, honestly it did disappoint me and that’s solely because of the press beforehand. Even Simon Pegg himself was guilty of singing the line about “daring you to like two despicable people”, It is true that mesas Pegg and Serkis are superbly likeable as Irish Entrepreneurs come serial killers. However it’s not them that are the problem, whilst understandably the body count is quite high; none of their victims even a cameo from Christopher Lee are really that likeable or given any screen time.

What that means is a complete dis-association with their crimes, the people they ‘knock off’ to make a living you don’t really care about and because every time they do take a life they do it quite ineptly it’s all a bit silly. So once again the press has over played the film a bit, you’re not dared to like despicable men your dared to take their crimes with a pinch of salt (even the lines on the screen at the beginning tells you that this is a true story apart from the parts that are not).

There are however some great performances from some of the cream of British comedy talent, clearly when word was around that John Landis was coming back to the UK to make a “Dark Comedy” they were queuing up. Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis excel at those Irish accents and excel at making two of the UK’s biggest serial killers actually likeable, they do that by playing them just a little bit on the dim side which I thought was a bit disappointing I thought they would be less bumbling more calculating. Jessica Hynes joins her Spaced co-star to play Lucky, William Hares wife? I don’t know? She is great and gives massive laughs to possibly the funnies sex scene I’ve ever seen. They are also joined by more Spaced alumni Bill Bailey, Michael Smiley and British thesps like Tom Wilkinson, Christopher Lee, Tim Curry, David Schofield and of course Ronnie Corbett. The shorter half of the two Ronnies is the cherry on top and his usual bumbling schtick fits into this story near perfectly, The rest flesh out a story that is as silly as it is macabre.

Those expecting An American Werewolf in London should look away now but those with an appreciation for the sillier side of traditional Ealing comedies should lap it up.