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Visitors Review

Coventry 2012-05-24 01:07:10

Killing and body snatching with a sardonic smile!

When I first heard of a new upcoming movie about the notoriousreal-life Edinburgh serial killers Burke and Hare, it promptly becamemy number one anticipated movie. I think it's one of the mostfascinating criminal cases in history and the grueling facts alreadyformed the inspiration for five other horror movies, varying from goodto excellent, spread over five different decades. If you really likedthis film, which is fairly well-known and easily available, try and diga little harder and deeper for "The Body Snatcher" (starring BorisKarloff), "The Greed of William Hart" (starring Tod Slaughter), "TheFlesh and the Fiends" (starring Peter Cushing), "The Horrors of Burkeand Hare" and "The Doctor and the Devils" (starring Timothy Dalton).They're all terrific movies based on the same story and thus quitesimilar, but one thing they don't share is a sense of humor. AdmittedlyI was a bit skeptical and even somewhat worried when I first read thatdirector John Landis would turn his version into a black comedy. Thereexist a whole lot of adjectives to describe the crimes of William Burkeand William Hare, but funny certainly isn't one of them. With the fastmoving evolution of medicine and anatomy at the University of Edinburghearly 1800's, there was a shortage of fresh cadavers to use as studymaterial. Eminent Doctors, like Robert Knox, were prepared to pay largesums of money for newly deceased bodies and didn't even ask anyquestions about the whereabouts. Since grave robbing became more andmore difficult, Burke and Hare developed a quicker and more efficientmethod to obtain corpses… It was a pure joy to see a good old-fashioned genuine John Landis filmagain! Even though he made a lot more straightforward comedies, Landiswill always be most remembered for his sardonic horror comedy "AnAmerican Werewolf in London". Also owing a great deal of the success tothe fabulous dream cast, "Burke and Hare" is one of the most highlyrecommended horror comedies of the past few years. I watched this movieat the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Films and the crowd– a completely full theater – literally went ballistic on more than oneoccasion. John Landis was there to present his film and clearly enjoyedhow the audience considers him as a living legend. The actual crimes ofBurke and Hare may have been horrendous, this new film largely puts theemphasis on black comedy. The duo's occasional struggles to murdertheir innocent victims (especially at the beginning of their "career"),their mutual interactions as well as those with Hare's wife, Burke'spatient efforts to impress an aspiring stage actress and the rivalrybetween the universities … It's basically serious subject matter, butLandis and his cast make it joyfully entertaining. Simon Pegg and AndySerkis are terrific in the leads, but the supportive roles and cameosare even more interesting, with names like Christopher Lee, JennyAgutter and Tim Curry.

Anthony Quinn 2012-05-23 09:57:07

The streets of Edinburgh furnish a properly sinister backdrop to this macabre business, but the film-makers haven't a clue how to make it work as comedy.

PatrickSamuel 2012-05-17 18:25:08

The biggest challenge the story faced was turning two mass murderers into characters you can follow, laugh with and have empathy for and I think this film does it really well.

Released just in time for Halloween is the macabre tale of Burke andHare! Set in 1820's Edinburgh, two Irish immigrants, William Burke(Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis), try one business ventureafter the next, and one after the next they fail. Just at the pointwhere they're about to face financial ruin, the duo come up with aningenious idea when they spot a in the niche in the market for thesupply and demand of fresh dead bodies which manages to turn theirfortunes around.The story is inspired by true events which took place in Edinburghbetween November 1827 and 31 October 1828 when the real life Bukre andHare murdered 16 people and sold their bodies to a private anatomylecturer, Doctor Robert Knox (played by Tom Wilkinson in the film), fordissection at Edinburgh Medical College. Although this is the 8th timetheir story has been brought to the big screen, this marks the firsttime that we see them as two likable lead characters.From a screenplay penned by Nick Moorcroft and Piers Ashworth anddirected by the legendary John Landis, Burke And Hare harks back to thedays of the old Ealing Studios dark comedies like Kind Hearts andCoronets (1949) and The Ladykillers (1955) which director John Landisis very fond of. It looks at the friendship between these two guys andfocuses on the idea of who the bad guys really are. The doctors or thekillers themselves? Mixing in a little Shakespeare with an all femaleproduction of Macbeth by Isla Fisher's character, Ginny, an aspiringyoung actress whom Burke falls madly in love with, another layer isadded to the story. While Ginny ponders what would drive a man likeMacbeth to murder, Burke looks at her and explains the character'smotivation; "He did it for love".By and large, I really enjoyed Bukre and Hare. The biggest challengethe story faced was turning two mass murderers into characters you canfollow, laugh with and have empathy for and I think this film does itreally well. As Burke is talked into the business with Hare, there'snever the slightest feeling that his friend is purposefully leading himdown a path to his own downfall, unlike the real Hare who gave Burke upin the end to escape a public hanging. Another element of the moviewhich was enjoyable was seeing so many familiar faces turning up insmaller roles; Ronnie Corbett decked out in his red and blue uniform asCaptain McLintock, Christopher Lee as Old Joseph, one of Buke andHare's early unfortunates and perhaps the most hilarious scene of allis when they push Paul Whitehouse down a flight of stairs! It's a goodone to see if you're after something dark and funny this Halloween.

Joseph Jon Lanthier 2012-05-17 07:26:30

John Landis's first directorial effort in over a decade, Burke and Hare is essentially a series of multiplex-ready clichés adorning a weakly scandalous premise.

Bill Goodykoontz 2012-05-16 14:23:24

"Burke and Hare" is a waste of a good cast and a better story, as well as a hollow reminder of how John Landis seemingly has lost his touch.

Glenn Kenny 2012-05-16 04:06:45

If it's altogether more cozy than American Werewolf, its ultimately upbeat charm is nevertheless pretty pleasingly fractured.

Alan Jones 2012-05-14 10:06:33

Landis pounces on every contemporary innovation and social issue for its inherent gallows humour to craft an entertaining version of the historical facts.

Tony Heck 2012-05-13 15:47:11

A very very true dark comedy about two grave robbers turned mass murderers in 19th century Scotland. Funny and dark. I say B

"I have got enough money put aside to start our new business...funeralparlors." This is the very funny true story about Burke (Pegg) and Hare(Serkis). They started off as simple grave robbers trying to make aliving in Scotland in the 19th century. When an opportunity that ismore lucrative comes along they jump at the chance. The job - providingcadavers to "teachers" around the city. The thing that gets them intotrouble is how they find the cadavers. This is an extremely dark comedythat makes you laugh at things you should not laugh at. The plot of themovie deals with two guys who go around killing people for money. Thefact that Simon Pegg is the main star is the reason I watched this tostart. The supporting cast is also fantastic, but the movie on it's ownis pretty entertaining and worth a watch. While not as funny as "ShaunOf The Dead", it does have that type of should I laugh at this qualityto it. The best way I can describe it would be a comedy along the linesof "Sweeney Todd". If you like that movie you will like this one, nosinging and more laughs. Overall, worth a watch, unless you are easilyoffended. I give it a B.*Also try - Lucky & Sweeney Todd

Michael_Elliott 2012-05-08 07:08:38

The Comedy Just Doesn't Work

Burke and Hare (2010) ** (out of 4) John Landis returned to the big screen with this black comedy aboutpoor boys William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis) whofind a way to earn money by selling dead bodies to a doctor (TomWilkinson). Soon the duo run out of bodies to sell so they resort tokilling in order to keep their business going. BURKE AND HARE wasreleased to mixed reviews and I'm going to have to side with those whofound the movie to be a major disappointment. It's strange but itreally does seem as if the screenplay doesn't know if it wants to be adrama or a simple comedy but it really ends up failing on both levels.I thought the comedy aspect was the weakest thing as there just reallywasn't anything funny going on. The first gag in the film deals with adoctor (played by Tim Curry) cutting off the foot of a man and thenducking out of the way to avoid blood, which of course falls on a guybehind him. This is the type of humor we're treated to and it justnever worked no matter how hard the cast members are working. I thinkthe better aspects are when the film is playing it straight and tellingthe story of the two grave robbers turned murderers. I think thesescenes work the best and especially because of the actual look of themovie. Director Landis at least gives us some very good atmosphere andit really does feel as if the film is taking place during the actualsettings. Both Pegg and Serkis are good in their parts but one wishesthey were given a better screenplay to work with. The supporting castis led by a very good Wilkinson who steals the film as usual. Curry ispretty good in his part and we also get familiar faces such asChristopher Lee, Jenny Agutter and even Ray Harryhausen. BURKE AND HAREis a good looking film with some fine performances but this just isn'tenough to save the film.

trevorwomble 2012-05-07 20:24:38

Like a Hammer film played for laughs

It is good to see a John Landis film back on the big screen but i feelhe missed a trick or two with this average effort. Firstly, for a filmset in Scotland i found it odd that the cast was almost entirelyEnglish, betraying the roots of the story (and of the English cast onlyTom Wilkinson ,a splendid actor, managed to give a good approximationof a Scots accent).This film felt a bit of a homage to the Hammer films, a point made whena certain Hammer Icon makes a cameo appearance (i won't name theindividual as i don't want to add a spoiler). I am guessing Landis is aHammer fan and to be fair to him the sets and locations work quitewell, giving Edinburgh a spooky feel to it. Both Pegg and Serkis are OKin the lead roles and do their best to sound Irish. It was also good tosee Jenny Agutter make a brief appearance too, especially as she isinvariably remembered for appearing in Landis's American Werewolf inLondon nearly 30 years ago...a nice touch by the director. In factthere seems to be quite a lot of casting British film and TV icons inthis film (Ronnie Corbett being another) so i'm guessing that maybeSimon Pegg or Andy Serkis only agreed to do it if certain Britishchildhood icons of theirs were also given parts.To be honest the Burke and Hare story has been better done before butthis film puts a comedic twist on it that doesn't always work. The badlanguage feels unnecessary for a start and the gore isn't as bad as ithought (certainly not on the levels of the Hostel or Saw films...andnot even as graphic as the Final Destination franchise). There are somegenuine laughs to be had but usually when Pegg and Serkis are on thescreen. The story itself also swings back and forth between gruesomeand the unexpected romantic angles that may have been intended to showBurke and Hare as committing their crimes for something other than justgreed.Basically this is a reasonably graphic horror story with heart andmorality that has some good laughs but falls flat in a few areas. Thecast give it their best shot and whilst it has an old fashioned feel toit in many ways, it is the unnecessary post-modern touches, theinconsistent rate at which the comedy comes and the rather odd castingthat jarred me. However do keep an eye out for the odd cameo appearancefrom some famous actors and comedians.

emmawrighttome 2012-05-05 00:20:54

Disappointing

'Burke and Hare'follows the story of two Irishmen who realise thatproviding dead bodies for the use of medical science will bring them acomfortable sum of money.As the subject matter may suggest, this film is full of dark comedy andplenty of toilet humour (most of which is very predictable). However,in the preview screening I just saw, of the 100 or so audience members,only as few chuckles were raised throughout the whole 91 minutes.There are more cameos than laughs, with appearances from a plethora ofBritish comedians and famous faces, but through the whole film thereare few strong characterisations, meaning that we are never rooting forany of the characters to achieve their goals. There is also a VERYdodgy Scottish accent from Isla Fisher, which is all you can focus onduring her scenes.It also felt like each scene had just one joke or plot point, whichwere then strung together in a very chunky way.Overall it was a pleasant film, but with the lack of wit and grippingstoryline, this was a disappointment.

Derek Malcolm 2012-05-04 10:33:42

It goes for pace and parody rather than wit, abounding with Victorian clichés about grasping anatomical surgeons, drunken dolls, daft soldiers and pompous worthies. The consolation lies in the minor roles.

David Stratton 2012-04-26 12:50:00

Isn't a great film by any means but, if you're in the right mood, it provides some laughs and it looks very handsome indeed.

Ray Bennett 2012-04-26 05:59:48

Unpleasant drivel that tries to make fun out of murder.

Allan Hunter 2012-04-26 12:09:40

Landis enjoyed some massive hits in the Eighties but this is his first feature film in 12 years and his style seems a little rusty.

Neil Welch 2012-04-25 21:03:57

Falls between two stools

John Landis' retelling of the true story of the notorious bodysnatchersof the early 18th century, supplying fresh bodies for the purposes ofmedical research (sometimes so fresh that the hearts hadn't stoppedbeating until Burke and Hare made sure they did) is a curious movie.The expression which kept going through my head while I was watching itwas "knockabout comedy." Now I'm not saying that comedy and horrorcan't happily co-exist - Landis' own American Werewolf In London is acase in point - but there is a difference between comedy and knockaboutcomedy. I must say that there is a lot of quite funny stuff in thismovie - the knockabout comedy, for the most part, works well inisolation. And there is also a sense of authentic 18th century grime,greyness and coldness to accompany the gruesome (but not that gruesome)activities of the individuals involved. The problem is that, while Ilike bacon, and I like custard, I'm not sure I want to eat themtogether, and the comedy and horror in Burke And Hare sits in the samearea for me.The cast all perform well, although nearly everyone - and there are alot of well-known faces here - is required to do either a Scots orIrish accent and some of them are, let's be honest, a bit dodgy.Jessica Hynes has a lot of fun, as does her character: the audienceperhaps less so.Isla Fisher looks as if she has been visited by the Boob Fairypost-birth. This is not a bad thing. her flair for comedy is put togood use.Simon Pegg engages audience sympathy: Andy Serkis doesn't.

Mark Holcomb 2012-04-23 15:19:30

Landis renders his Burke and Hare sociopolitically toothless and bizarrely insensitive.

rael 2012-04-23 00:19:00

Landis Comeback

Burke and Hare is a story of two men in Scotland in the late XIXcentury barely making a dime when an opportunity comes along to earnhard cash by killing people and selling their bodies to the benefit ofscience.This movie may seem morally rotten at its core making a comedy out ofmurder, but it succeeds at it while quite a lot of comedies with farless harmful plots don't, not to mention that some of the most popularTV shows of today make it fit right in. John Landis comedies much incommon with ZAZ productions and sometimes are almost live actioncartoons. The title characters are shown as flawed people in adesperate situation which they think justifies their actions - we don'tlaugh with them, only at them. And that's intentional.John Landis came back with a surprisingly decent feature. It's as ifthe MTV-style cinema revolution has passed him by (the one that hit thenew Sherlock Holmes square in the face). No camera gymnastics, noforced sensual assault, all the action and physical comedy happens inframe. Burke and Hare is his first 2.35:1 feature and it shows - theframe at first appears a little too wide, like if the characters weretaken from a 16:9 movie and arranged accordingly. By the way, "highlyentertaining", "very funny" and "packed with the cream of Britishtalent" - those bits on the poster aren't far from the truth.

Biggest_Loser 2012-04-20 19:33:30

Whoever suggested that this painfully unfunny film should be a comedy must have had their head stuck up in the clouds of Victorian smog

During the 1820s in Edinburg, corpses are stolen so that they can bedissected and used for medical science and research. One of the doctorsarranging this is Doctor Robert Knox (Tom Wilkinson). He's finding itincreasingly difficult to get fresh corpses because the graves are nowbeing guarded by the militia and also because any bodies from theexecutioner (Bill Bailey) are now being sent to Knox's rival, Dr. Monro(Tim Curry). When the King announces that there is a reward for themost improvement in medical science, Knox ambitiously sets out to mapthe inside and outside of the human body. Meanwhile, a pair of Irishswindlers in William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis)find themselves broke. One of their tenants has died and they need tofind a new source of income. They are hired by Knox to rob graves andbring him the fresh bodies. He's impressed with their first deliveryand he pays them handsomely. Burke is reluctant but Hare manages toconvince him and he is driven further when he meets a beautiful bargirl named Ginny Hawkins (Isla Fisher). She wants to start an allfemale stage version of Macbeth and Burke offers to help fund theproject. They become romantically involved but she also keeps himdeliberately at an arm's length.Whoever suggested that this painfully unfunny film should be a comedymust have had their head stuck up in the clouds of Victorian smog.Somewhere beneath the visually drab and derivatively grey palettes ofJohn Landis' film is another picture, loosely surrounding Darwinism.It's also a remake of a Vernon's Sewell 1972 film, which was notably ahorror picture. But along with the mechanical plotting of PiersAshworth and Nick Moorcroft's lumbering screenplay, Burke and Hare as ablack comedy just doesn't work. Perhaps this was an attempt to softenthe sensitive concept of 'the survival of the fittest' for moreconservative viewers but there's little consideration for tone,authenticity or purpose. The film is, for example, bookended by a BillBailey's narrator, who breaks down the fourth wall by talking directlyto the audience. For what effect though when so much effort has beenplaced into realistically recreating the period? The rest of the filmis so desperate for laughs that every secondary character ispractically winking at the camera with caricature-like smugness. Toneis important in comedy because it affects the weight of any drama andconflict. When everything is as exaggerated as it is here it loses itsgrounding, meaning and significance. Because of this, the film islacking in dramatic tension and irony. When it reaches its conclusionafter a very brisk ninety minutes it'll be met by the collective shrugsof audiences.And though humour might be highly subjective, where is the joke inmurdering the old, the dying or the overweight? It's making light ofsomething that only the Aryan race would be proud of. The scenes whereBurke and Hare smother an old woman to death make them extremelyunsympathetic company. As emotionless as the rest film is, that sceneis quite disturbing. You either go with the film's moral bankruptcy oryou don't. Hare might have been able to talk Burke into their businessbecause of a girl and frequent reiterations of the line 'it was out oflove' but they didn't convince me. Furthermore, moments of grotesquesplatter involving blood spurts, faeces and rotting corpses are likesomething from a bad Monty Python sketch and detract from what isalready a particularly unpleasant story. The cast is talented but Idon't think that Andy Serkis is scheming or sneaky enough to be muchfun. Together, Burke and Hare have about as much chemistry as some oftheir merchandise. At least Isla Fisher is a little more flamboyant,sensible motivations notwithstanding, but the inclusion of Macbeth istransparent and threadbare at best. I don't dislike Simon Pegg as acomedian but as an actor there are some worrying signs. He seems to beplaying less of a character and more of a face puller, which was alsothe case in Paul from earlier this year too. Technically this isactually last year's film because after its release in the UK, going asfar back as October, its Australian release was delayed till now. Atleast they got something right.

kosmasp 2012-04-20 13:23:17

I sell the ...

While there was another movie with a similar theme, that I watched lastyear, I thought this would be superior to that one. I mean this is madeby John Landis. So I was expecting quite a bit more from it, I have toadmit. It does not disappoint completely, it just feels like a bit toolight. There seems to be something missing. Character development isstraightforward, but still it's nothing grand. Something I came toexpect from a Landis movie.Of course I might be nit-picking. The movie is not bad at all. It hasquite a few comic moments (an intercourse scene that is just funny andcould not be called arousing at all, works greatly, there are scenes ofgreat comedy value besides that too), but there is still somethingmissing to make it better. I would recommend a watch. I'd just say notto expect too much!Edit: I just found out a month ago, that there is a very good chance,that there is another cut of this movie. A cut approved by Mr. Landishimself (which seems not to have been the case with this one) ... thatwould explain quite a lot ...