Thanks to Paramount Pictures we had the honour to assist in the media screening for “Burke & Hare” before it hits the cinemas. This is our review for the film, and remember there is no absolute truth in any review, you have to go to your local cinema and watch the film, there is no better critic than yourself!
Burke & Hare is a dark comedy directed by John Landis. Landis brings an exceptional funny story in 1820′s based on William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis, well-known for his role as Gollum in Lord of The rings), a couple of friends looking for a new business opportunity in 19th century Edinburgh.
The city is known for their Medicine schools, specializing in human anatomy that attracts students from all over Europe. However, after Doctor Monro (Tim Curry) gets exclusivity to obtain the cadavers for his school, there was shortage in dead bodies for other doctors to use, particularly Doctor Robert Knox (Tom Wilkinson). This problem opened an opportunity for grave robbers. Here is when Burke & Hare got the idea to start their business and they were able to obtain a total of 16 bodies in different funny situations to fill in the needs of Doctor Knox’s for cadavers. Knox need the bodies to create a map of human anatomy made by “Heliographics” (the actual x-ray images).
When Burke & Hare lifestyle begins to improve because of the business, Hare`s alcoholic wife Lucky (Jessica Hines) joins the team. Burke on the other hand, meets Ginny Hawking (Isla Fisher), an ex-prostitute and aspiring actress looking for someone to finance her all-female version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Burke can’t avoid falling in love with her and starts to finance her play. However because of these, the two bogeymen need more money, so they extended their business to murderers in their quest for fresh bodies. This activity attracted the attention of Captain McLintoch (Ronnie Corbett) and the militia who opened a case to look for some of the missing persons.
Two of the best things of the film are the photography and the locations where the scenes took place. These give the whole movie a realistic approach especially with the touch of really old-looking grey and sepia tones. The customs, costumes and the language used were also made to look and sound like that you are really in the 19th century.
Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis are a great duo, a funny team who put together a great performance for the film. The movie dynamics is good that it avoided the usual jokes and came up with fresh ones that will surprise the public every time. Moreover, the ending of the film has unexpected twist that many of you might appreciate.
The comedy also features great cameos spotting Christopher Lee, Ray Harryhausen, Michael Winner, Paul Whitehouse, Stephen Merchant and politician Costa-Gavras, to name a few.
If you want to have a great time and you are not afraid to see some “body parts” on big screen, pass by your local cinema and enjoy this hilarious dark comedy.
If you like Dark Comedies or comedies in general and you want have a great time go and watch Burke & Hare and don’t forget to let us know what you think of the movie.
Burke and Hare is coming to cinemas 12 May.
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