Burke and Hare (John Landis, 2010)

Ealing Studios has been making films under its own name again for over a decade, albeit quietly, as if not wanting to draw comparison with the productions of its heyday. But when a film styles itself so much on The Ladykillers and drafts in John Landis to direct for the first time in a dozen years too, parallels will be raised.
Burke and Hare does not stack up well against either its Ealing forebears or Landis's distant peak period: while Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis are as likable as ever as the cheeky corpse-trading murderers, and the supporting cast is a diverting I-Spy line-up of British comedy names, the setpieces are rather tired and the tone frequently lurches worryingly from the safe Shaun of the Dead environment towards Carry On territory instead. It's not an atrocity on the level of so many British comedies built around TV stars in that it does manage to raise a few chuckles, but neither is it fully alive on arrival.

4/10