Burke & Hare

Old wine, old bottles, old brewers do not a vintage make. England's Ealing Studios (founded 1896) and American director John (Animal House) Landis used to be masters of the comic movie genre. In theory, any movie they created together should be a happy romp. More so if it was written by Nick Moorcroft and Piers Ashworth (who together had crafted Ealing's profitable revival of the St Trinian's franchise), and if its cast was headed by busy Simon (Mission Impossible, Star Trek) Pegg, who'd worked for and in Ealing on Shaun of the Dead.

Add a fashionable co-star, Andy Serkis (LOTR's Gollum, Little Dorrit, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll) and give them plum black-comic roles as Burke and Hare, the historical purveyors of cadavers to Scotland's leading teacher of surgery, Dr Knox. Have him played by ubiquitous genius of British character acting, Tom Wilkinson.

What more could you want for a blood-and-thundering farce and 1820s period piece? More than you'd ever imagined, including comedian Bill Bailey as a droll on-screen commentator, Tim Curry as the rival surgeon, and Ronnie Corbett as a bumbling military officer of the law, all assuming so-bad-it's-almost-amusing Scottish accents.

Enough? Nah, not when you can stud your cast list with cameos from Christopher Lee, Jenny Agutter, Michael Winner, 90-year-old Ray Harryhausen (Hollywood SFX maestro), Stephen Merchant and Allan Corduner, to name just some of the wasted talents involved.

Ealing, Pegg et al must be asking themselves why they opted to bring Landis out of cinematic retirement and give him the director's chair. Kindly, it's assumed they assumed he had the Hollywood expertise they'd need to create an international success: he'd made An American Werewolf in London (1981, as a 30-year-old), Michael Jackson's videos for Thriller and Black or White, Trading Places and more award-winning movie and cable successes.

But, in 1992, he was nominated for his first Worst Director Razzie (most embarrassingly, for Oscar). He earned the undesirable moment of Hollywood infamy twice more, for Beverly Hills Cop III (1995) and The Stupids (1997). Susan's Plan (1998) was his disastrous last big-screen effort at writing-directing; he shifted to TV for 12 years. Then he went to Ealing, and has reportedly kept a base in London, attached to a projected screen adaptation of Sheridan's The Rivals.

His presentation of the Burke and Hare saga, a fabulous tale of primitive market forces at work, is well-paced and competent in all technical aspects. It isn't funny, though, or comically horrific. So I'll re-watch Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd, probably with enhanced respect.