Quick Review: Burke & Hare (2011)

It's odd to see Simon Pegg not paired with someone who is fat and bumbling for a change, but since it's Andy Serkis in this case, we can live with it.

Burke & Hare is the story of two bumbling losers in merry ole' England, who take to grave robbing to pay the bills. It's similar in many ways to another grave robbing Horror Comedy, I Sell the Dead, except that the latter is a far better flick.

Burke & Hare does have the sexy as hell Isla Fisher though, so we're not complaining. At least not too much.

See how cute she is?

B&H is mildly amusing, and mildly engaging, but it's more flat than anything else. Aside from a few laugh out loud moments, the funny bits are mostly non-existent. It's not a "bad" film; John Landis does his usual thing here, and to a decent effect, but it just never seems to make it over the top of the rise as far as either its Comedy or Horror aspects go.

Wacky!

Not funny enough, not serious enough, B&H just sort of languishes in the in-between, waiting to be swept in either direction, which never quite happens. I feel confident in saying this is Simon Pegg's least satisfying film, and I've seen Run, Fatboy, Run. Yeah.

But Isla though... she is perfect.

As a comeback, it's not such a good one for John Landis. I Sell the Dead did this whole concept better, though it was admittedly a vastly different movie, so stick with that one if you're in the mood for some grave robbing, Horror hi-jinks. If you're a fan of Landis or Pegg though, you may just like this enough to sit through it.

C-

Ah, Isla Fisher...