BURKE & HARE

The last couple of years have proven to be revitalising for several prominent directors from the 70s and 80s. Directors like Joe Dante, John Carpenter and Dario Argento have sprung back to life with their first feature length films in over a decade. Now it's John Landis' turn. If you don't know him he is responsible for Michael Jackson's Thriller, An American Werewolf in London, Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Three Amigos, Coming to America and more. He was hot property during the 80s but then a string of bad movies brought his career to a halt. Now 12 years since his last film he is back with Burke And Hare.

These characters are actually real life murderers and you can read about their crimes if you care to... one of their skeletons is even on display in a museum. This film, as you would gather is a macabre black comedy about their exploits and features an array of British actors. Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis star and they are joined by players like Tom Wilkinson, Ronnie Corbert, Tim Curry and Bill Bailey. Christopher Lee and a few others even make brief cameos. Burke and Hare are hard on their luck and stumble upon an untapped supply & demand enterprise.... they provide cadavers to anatomy surgeons for top dollar. They make a small fortune out of it and soon the big wig criminals weigh into it and the whole thing is muddied by multiple parties. Its a funny movie. Lots of classic olde English style gags and plenty of grotesque laughs. As with the aforementioned directors it's great to see Landis back on the scene and I hope its not the last we see of him.