And your new students? Are they enjoying your lectures?
Ah, not as much as I understand they’re enjoying your wife, SIR.
Burke and Hare is an overlooked British comedy set in Georgian UK. The movie is very loosely based on the Burke and Hare serial killers of Edinburgh.
The amazing Simon Pegg of awesome Shaun of the Dead fame is Burke and Andy Serkis (Gollum from Lord of the Rings) is Hare. They are a pair of Irish immigrants to Edinburgh and are looking for work. Hare’s wife runs a local lodging house, but it’s not really bringing in the coin. They stumble upon the idea of grave robbing after their attempt to sell rotten cheese rinds as magical Irish cure all moss fails. They sell the body of a dead lodger to a famous surgeon, Knox (Tom Wilkinson), who is locked in a poisonous struggle with his local medical rival, Monro (Ahh Tim Curry, how WONDERFUL you are! No one plays a better sanctimonious jerk).
So Burke and Hare realize that this body selling business is pretty damn good, but the demand is exceeding supply. So they hit on the idea of killing their lodgers (Christopher Lee cameo!) and then random people on the street. Burke falls for a local actress and needs some serious cash to support her, so they start getting rather reckless. And the local militia is slowly beginning to notice.
This is a funnish movie. There are some pretty good one liners and some funny parts. It won’t really stick with you or anything after. The premise seems rather wishy washy and unbelievable. The actress is just too damn innocent and naive seeming and Burke a gullible rube. The people, for the most part, seem oddly clean for that period of English history. It was mostly funny but I won’t be thinking of it for very long. I definitely had no desire to watch it again. Well, except for the parts with Tim Curry. He’s just fabulous as pompous and cutting rival. Sadly, he’s not in it very much. Maybe 10 minutes or less of total screen time. Burke and Hare is just one of those movies that disappears into the bargain bin and something Pegg did to pass the time. It’s a meh.
2 scoops of cassata gelato out of 5.
dessertforlunch 