TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Adam Peters (44%) A well made, yet oddly completely unfunny watch centred around the crimes of the notorious murderous duo in 19th century Edinburgh. So what exactly went wrong here? Because with the cast including the talented Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis, with support from the likes of Tim Curry, Tom Wilkinson, British TV favourite Ronny Corbett, even Christopher Lee in a small cameo, and with John Landis directing meaning this should have been a hell of a lot better than it actually is. The first problem is the fact that this starts claiming to be an Earling studio production, and not once in the entire film did it ever remotely capture the feel of that once great name. It may have the darker edge you'll find in something like The ladykillers, but what is really lacking is any sort of soul or heart. It doesn't also help that the true tale of Burke and Hare isn't actually that comedic as there's no real punchline anywhere, just a couple of guys making a bit of money grave robbing and killing people, and that's about it. This isn't a bad watch by any means, but I defy anyone truly enjoying its half baked attempts.

Movie Lover Thoughts : Black Comedy that falls disappointingly flat with laughs few and far between, most of the joy coming from cameos. If Jack Sparrow showed up wandering around he would fit right in with characters in this. Acting : Being Irish I feel qualified to say Andy Serkis gave the best performance accent wise. All the performances were fine, Ronnie Corbett seemed miscast and a little distracting taking me out of story with his presence.Naughtiness : Alas no Isla Fisher in the nip, you do however get to see a fully clothed Andy Serkis humping away if that's your thing….twice!Effects. A great visual effect of a rigor mortis body bent in an hilarious shape, funniest scene of the movie for me.Music : Can't recall music making any impression for good or ill but the end credits song is guaranteed to get you smiling. The Proclaimers singing "500 miles"Cinematography. : Dark and creepy looking, Hammer studios would be proud of this aesthetic.Overall : A failure but entertaining nonetheless. Made me look up the real story of the titular characters. Worth a one time watch if you don't feel too demanding.

Leofwine_draca I wonder who thought a comedy about Britain's most famous graverobbers would be a good idea? A brief look at the credits of the guys who did the screenplay soon reveals that they're the ones behind ST TRINIAN'S 2: THE LEGEND OF FRITTON'S GOLD. That alone speaks volumes.Of course, the story is doomed to failure from the very beginning, because comedy is so hard to get right. The jokes are either funny or they're not. It goes without saying that I didn't laugh once during the course of this film. The gurning, mugging, getting-crap-poured-over-them gags aren't an example of getting it right. In fact, BURKE & HARE gets it very wrong indeed, which is kind of sad because back in the day John Landis was a great director. Now he's mired in the dreck.Simon Pegg plays Simon Pegg, with the addition of that Scottish accent he used in STAR TREK. Andy Serkis is Andy Serkis with a similar-sounding accent. Both seem to be in it for the money. Isla Fisher – well, don't get me started on Isla Fisher, and her extensive sub-plot involving some rubbish about the first all-female production of Macbeth. Huh? I thought this was meant to be a film about graverobbing, yet half of it's about bloody Macbeth, and the other half just changes history when it feels like it.Lots of effort was made in recreating 19th century Edinburgh, and the supporting cast is, frankly, astonishing. Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry, Christopher Lee, David Schofield, Ronnie Corbett, Hugh Bonneville, Jenny Agutter, hell, even Stephen Merchant, Michael Winner and Paul Whitehouse. And what do all these fine people have in common? They're singularly wasted, either relegated to boring serious roles or blink-and-you'll-miss-em cameos. No, I won't waste any more time on a film I'd rather forget even exists – especially when you have a wealth of minor classics on the same subject (THE BODY SNATCHER, THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS, BURKE AND HARE…even DR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE!).

Vivekmaru45 Or Hare-brained is more like it. Have you ever heard of the expression Burking? NO? Well in this film we have it all.This film stars Simon Pegg(or Pegg-head as I like to call him). This fellow has gone down in the world. I thoroughly enjoyed Shaun Of The Dead.In this one: he stinks.This story is based on The Burke and Hare murders (also known as the West Port murders) were serial murders perpetrated in Edinburgh, Scotland, from November 1827 to 31 October 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses of their 17 victims to provide material for dissection. Their purchaser was Doctor Robert Knox, a private anatomy lecturer whose students were drawn from Edinburgh Medical College. Their accomplices included Burke's mistress, Helen McDougal, and Hare's wife, Margaret Laird. From their infamous method of killing their victims has come the word "burking", meaning to purposefully smother and compress the chest of a victim, and a derived meaning, to quietly suppressBack to the film: the plot is a parody of the actual killings. Burke is shown to be a romantic in the film (as well as a man of principles), madly in love with Helen McDougal (Isla Fisher) - under the name Ginny Hawkins - a former prostitute, attempts to attract the attention of everyone in the bar by doing an extract from the William Shakespeare play Macbeth. You feel sympathetic towards Burke.The character of Hare is shown as a man who lives only for himself. He even forsakes his best friend Burke at the end of the film. In this film Hare is NOT dealt with by the mob at the end of the film. In this one: he opens his own funeral parlour.Ronny Corbett(star of the Two Ronnies BBC TV series) makes a welcome appearance. In this film he looks like a parody of Napoleon Bonaparte. Christopher Lee makes a cameo appearance as Joseph.William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis) attempting to sell cheese mould which they state is growing moss. When they are found out, they flee back to an Inn owned by Hare's wife Lucky (Jessica Hynes), who states that one of their lodgers has died. Burke and Hare decide to transport the corpse to Knox. They are forced to break the corpse's spine in order to fit inside the barrel.Burke and Hare arrive at Knox's castle and present the now mangled corpse to Knox. Knox then agrees that if the pair bring him two bodies a week for dissection, he will pay them a large amount of money.Joseph one of the lodgers at the Inn, is an elderly man, near death and before he can die a natural death, this process is speeded up by the duo of Burke and Hare. They take his body to Dr. Robert Knox (Tom Wilkinson), who gives them both a large amount of money.From then onwards, Hare thinks this is a very lucrative business.Verdict: the film is very poorly scripted and the comedy is insufficient and falls flat on its face. Even Ronnie Corbett can't save this film.I have seen 3 films which are far superior than this. They are 1. The Body Snatcher (1945) 2. The Flesh And The Fiends, and 3. The Doctor And The Devils (1985).If the script had been good and with better choice of actors as Burke and Hare, this film could have been better.