Bill Bailey, Ronnie Corbett, Christopher Lee, Steve Merchant, Simon Pegg, Tim Curry, Jessica Hynes and Andy Serkis you say? Set in Scotland you claim? a (fairly) big budget film made in Britain with an all Brit cast? fuckin' A I'm there, who's directing?
John Landis? hmmmm.
That's right, Mr Landis (the director behind "An American Werewolf in London" a long time ago... LONG time ago) is such a huge fan of British humour and British comedies that he's decided to make one, the problem is, he's American... as racist as it sounds, it's a totally different kettle of fish. while he delivers the many national treasures as one would apply salt to a dish (lightly and evenly sprinkled) the comedy never hits the highs it should, and neither does the drama.
While primarily a dark black comedy about infamous grave robbers/murderers the William's (Hare and Burke) are in need of quick cash in 19th century Edinburgh, which, as any Irishman will tell, means they have to start killing people... wait, what? We work our way through various Brit comedy icons (Paul Whitehorse, Corbett, Curry etc.) knocking off the odd "Cadaver" in order to make a few bob, while Corbett's Edinburgh Militia are hot on their heels.
Much like Titanic and Romeo & Juliet, though you know how they story goes, it's always interesting seeing how it gets there, and while some up and down performances of actors struggling to maintain performance AND accent (I'm looking at you ISLA FISCHER!)the grittiness and overall dirty feeling of the period are caputured perfectly. The film is at it's very least enjoyable, not brilliant but you could do much worse, worth seeing for the Spaced alumni alone, but a cheeky giggles even if you havent followed Pegg and Hynes since the 90's. 6/10
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