Burke and Hare: DVD Review

Burke and Hare: DVD Review

Burke and Hare
Rating:M
Released by Universal Home Ent

A comic retelling of the 1820s Westport murders, Burke and Hare is an odd kind of film.

The ever brilliant Simon Pegg stars as William Burke and Andy Serkis is William Hare, a pair of conmen who're trying to make ends meet in Edinburgh.
When they overhear that corpses can fetch a pretty penny from the medical industry, they decide to supply Dr Knox (Tom Wilkinson) with corpses to make some cash. Trouble is, people aren't dying too quickly from natural causes - and that's where things take a murderous turn.

However, when the cash they earn pushes them in to the upper echelons of society, Burke falls hard for travelling actress Ginny (Isla Fisher) and starts to suffer from conscience&

And with the militia (headed up by Ronnie Corbett) onto the murders, it looks like the noose is tightening around their necks&

A queasy mix of murder and comedy, Burke and Hare seems to fail on both levels because it can't decide whether the dark tale needs to be told seriously or with a tongue firmly in its cheek. The main duo are hapless and it does play against the truth of the murders but the guest cast is stunning - a veritable who's who of the UK comedy scene.
Burke and Hare is a curio and probably one for fans of Ealing comedies more than anything - it's a botched attempt at a mixing of genres and the resultant mess is a frustrating disappointment.

Extras: Deleted scenes and outtakes

Rating: 4/10