Death at a Funeral is the new comedy film from director Neil LaBute (Wicker Man) starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Danny Glover, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Luke Wilson to name a few, which is about a family funeral that descends into chaos due to exposed family secrets, hallucinogenic fuelled guests, blackmail, relationships and a little person.
If the film title sounds familiar then that’s because it’s a remake of the British Frank Oz movie of the same name, in fact it has the same writer in Dean Craig and the same actor in Peter Dinklage playing the Frank who’s the catalyst for the downturn in events at the funeral. This is all fine but the problem for me is that it’s almost a scene for scene remake of the original British film and shows no originality apart from what appears at times to be some improvised dialogue from the now African-American family with a bit more swearing.
The film opens with the arrival of a coffin to a big family home, The coffin initially contains the wrong body, a Chinese man or “Jackie Chan” (ha ha…) to the annoyance of Aaron (Chris Rock) and things continue to go down hill from there when the arrival of Aaron’s brother Ryan (Martin Lawrence), a successful writer, adds pressure to his eulogy he’s prepared as well as claiming he can’t afford to pay for half the costs of the funeral. Aaron’s sister Elaine (Zoe Saldana) arrives with her accidentally drugged up boyfriend Oscar (James Marsden) after he took some supposed valium that is actually acid which sends him into a crazy delirious hallucinogenic state which is perfect for funerals and on top of that family friends Norman (Tracy Morgan) and Derek (Luke Wilson) arrive with foul mouthed wheel chaired uncle Russell and so begins the madness.
It’s the arrival at the funeral of an unknown little person called Frank (Peter Dinklage) when things start to get out of hand, claiming to Aaron that he is the secret lover of his father with pictures to prove it, he asks for money that is owed to him in return for secrecy and when Aaron gets his brother Ryan involved things go from bad to worse as they try to prevent the truth getting out.
The film will no doubt be a minor hit mainly due to box office draw of the ensemble cast and that it’s using the same relatively successful material of the 2007 original. The only real improvement is over the original was, surprisingly, James Marsden’s performance as the hallucinogen stricken Oscar who puts in a brilliant display of funny mannerisms, sayings and facial expressions throughout and was easily the funniest on show amongst the exceptional collection of comedians, actors and Martin Lawrence.
Tracy Morgan was again, like in the appalling Cop Out, playing his 30 Rock Character/himself (I forget which one is real now) which isn’t always a bad thing but it is predictable, Danny Glover was as foul mouthed and abusive as required and Martin Lawrence was wooden and unfunny as ever. The other cast all played their roles sufficiently enough to keep the film moving along with the excellent Keith David providing a nice turn as the suffering Reverend Davis witnessing the family chaos unfold, Luke Wilson was fine and had good rapport with Tracy Morgan but it all seemed over familiar and unoriginal as it was so close to the source material.
The only reason the film has been made is to bring the average story to the American audience and using a chance to bring some of the best black actors/actresses together in one film and it works in that respect with the jokes bound to bring laughs and the subject matter although being quite dark offering some familiar family issues and laughing at them. Is it worth 92 minutes of your time? Maybe, James Marsden’s enjoyable display and if you fancy a few decent jokes and some scat humour performed by some superb actors of our generation then go for it. Was it worth remaking? Not at all, the original was ok the remake matched it.
Death at a Funeral is released on 2nd June.
