Burke and Hare

IFC Films | Release Date: September 9, 2011

5.4	USER SCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Ratings

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HighwayUKJun 1, 2012

I quite liked the casting so that was enough to make me want to watch it, I was quite satisfied with the movie, had some good acting, decent reworking of the story and grisley too...

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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LewisDannyOct 14, 2017

I think this might possibly be the only movie in Simon Pegg's gigantic filmography that I haven't liked - very little redeeming features in this film, unfortunately.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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DawdlingPoetNov 28, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is quite an entertaining film, a bit over the top as far as the accents are concerned (and thats perhaps putting it lightly!), one which doesn't take itself too seriously, in the depiction of the characters and the area its set in. There's a lot of cheery pipe/celtic style music played, although otherwise the city looks very dark and rather spooky but the people do seem quite animated, almost like a sort of stereotyped caricature of the type of person they are (a Scot, an Irishman, a drunk etc.).

This did seem to me a bit of a mish-mash of a comedy/spoof/drama. It has a really cheesy feel to it and I suppose some people may feel its a bit inappropriate, given the serious nature of the pairs crimes (as far as the relatives of the victims are concerned certainly, although, of course, this all happened a fair while ago). I felt that the music used was rather off putting at times, in terms of the emphasis placed on it. I did think it was quite amusing in some of the comical scenes, such as a drunken mans response to somehow recovering from a rather nasty long fall. I also found myself paying quite close attention to the new characters that appeared on screen, due to the numerous well known cast members, well known British comedy stars, who regularly made an appearance. The film includes a sub-plot involving Burke's romantic interest, which seemed perhaps superfluous, or otherwise not entirely necessary. Given I felt this film had a spoof element, I suppose it could be argued that it was simply 'par for the course' but it didn't seem to be entirely integral to the main storyline and just a bit of 'fluff', shall we say. This film is definitely quite comical and as I say it doesn't take itself seriously, so don't expect it to be a completely hisorically accurate re-enactment of the supposed true story its based on (which is one thats quite famous in Scottish folklore). The accents are rather toe curling in a silly, overly dramatic and rather comedic way. I found it to be a highly watchable, entertaining film, if a bit over the top and perhaps too blase given what supposedly occured being a true story. To be fair to the film, though, I believe it opens up with the lines 'based on a true story. The parts that are true anyway' or something similar, so there you go!.

One thing that confused me (as a side note) is/was the constant referring to what seemed to be the police, as the militia, which wasn't a label I was familiar with. Yes there are slightly squeamish moments but its certainly not what I would categorise as a horror film - its quite mildly gory I suppose but as long as you can stomach a small amount of blood spatter then that shouldn't cause many issues. I think its fair to say that this is primarily a quite light hearted film, in tone and content generally. At around an hour and a half long, there are certainly worse ways you could spend that time, or worse things you could see but it probably won't appeal or suit all and I suspect I won't remember a great deal about it in the weeks to follow, as it did seem rather unmemorable. For the type of film it is, its ok, possibly worth renting or catching on TV but I wouldn't go out of my way to spend much seeing it.… Expand

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