From the DVD Shelf: Burke and Hare

Burke and Hare is an alright film, it just isn't funny; what's the point of the comedy that isn't funny?

I was rather interested in seeing Burke and Hare. Quite recently (well about 6 months ago) I travelled up to Edinburgh and came into contact with the legend of Burke and Hare, the true story of two illustrious evil-doers who took grave robbery to a whole new level by murdering people and selling their corpses on. I thought to myself, how do you make something as horrible as that, funny? That was obviously the problem facing those behind Burke and Hare, and plainly they made the wrong decisions.

Burke and Hare demonstrates clearly that just because the ingredients are good, doesn’t mean that the final product will be good too. Firstly we have the director, John Landis, the director of such great films as: The Blues brothers (do I need to say more?). Secondly we have a smorgasbord of British Talent: Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Bill Bailey, Christopher Lee, Tim Curry, Tom Wilkenson, Jessica Hynes, Ronnie Corbett (yes really), Steven Merchant, Paul Whitehouse, that guy from “Calm down dear, it’s only a commercial” advert (ok maybe not him!) and many more. Thirdly, you have a pretty interesting plot to work with; an interesting true story of death and murder that is well known enough to reach some sort of recognition with the audience, but not so well known that plot details will be scrutinised (and you probably shouldn’t scrutinise anything without Burke and Hare closely).

Though, despite all this to work with, there is nothing to show for it; at least nothing good.

So the film follows William Burke and William Hare, played by Simon Pegg and Any Serkis, two down on their luck Irish immigrants within the confines of an 18^th century Edinburgh (the premise of which is explained in a really lazy way through Bill Bailey, who puts forward this premise directly to the audience). However, after finding one of their roommates dead, they soon find that they can sell corpses at a high price to a local doctor, Dr Robert Knox, played by Tom Wilkinson. From here on in they decide to pursue grave robbery, but after realising there are few bodies to hand, they decide to create their own. This is not the only aspect to the story, in fact this part, which you would assume would be the crux of the film, takes a back seat too the romantic side-plot between Simon Pegg’s character and Ginny, played by Isla Fisher, and also a sub-plot about the interplay Dr Robert Knox and his rival surgeon, Doctor Monroe, played by Tim Curry. None of these side plots are specifically bad, but none are really specifically interesting, and they detract from the main premise of the film, which in the beginning seems thwarted. Despite the fact that this is about a duo of murderers, there is surprisingly little murdering done, and when there are some they are brief and rather uninteresting. Obviously this is a restriction of the genre, but being a 15 surely there could have been some kind of dark comedic twists. It also seems a little unbalanced, the beginning drags on for too long, and the end comes up rather quickly and it is a bit of an anti-climax… but that’s enough bashing of the story. For all my criticisms, it’s not bad, it just isn’t especially good.

The characters themselves are also in this same category; not bad, but not great. Both Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis work well together, and their Scottish accents seem fine (to me at least). While the penumbra of supporting actors do a similarly fine role, apart from maybe Ronnie Corbet who is rather...awful. (hey I like Ronnie Corbet…but he really wasn’t great here).

No matter how all right the plot is, and how good the acting was, the simple fact is, it isn’t funny. It was silly in parts, and some instances made me smile, but on the whole I don’t think I really laughed once. Strangely, at least for me, it wasn’t like they were shoving terrible joke after terrible incident after terrible joke, or that the jokes just fell flat, but rather that they didn’t seem to be present at all. It was as if they filmed everything and agreed to put all the funny bits in later, and then forgot. Even Simon Pegg, who I would say is a rather funny guy, just didn’t seem to have his usual wit. Perhaps this wit was pushed aside at his strenuously perfected Scottish accent.

Perhaps it was the way it was cut and edited. A lot of the scenes, which you would expect to be funny, seem to finish to early, cutting away from a comical pause, or just ending before you feel they should. Mostly though, it feels like the comedic aspect wasn’t the first thought, or it was the first thought, but of someone who doesn’t know how to write something funny, which could rightly be the case seeing as the Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft’s two previous contributions to cinema both had the words ‘St Trinian’s’ in the title.

In the end, nothing comes together in Burke and Hare and you’re left with an all right film, but one that isn’t at all funny, which for a film billed as a comedy, is obviously a fatal.