Death at a Funeral (2010)

Death at a Funeral is a remake of a movie of the same name from 2007. The original is an oppressively British comedy without much actual comedy in it, directed by Frank Oz. I know some people were waiting to see the new Death (that’s what I’m calling it from this point on) until they saw the original, but I beseech you, DO NOT SEE THE ORIGINAL FIRST! I can’t say that with enough emphasis because of 2 reasons. 1) The original is not funny, so please don’t waste your time. (Like I did) And 2) because this new version is literally the same script as the original movie. Yes, it has all the same jokes in it. Ok, so I lied a little bit earlier. I actually didn’t finish the 2007 version because of 2 reasons. 1) It wasn’t funny and 2) Because there was about to be a poop joke and if you know me (and some of you do) you know I can’t stand people talking about poop let alone some curmudgeonly old man about to take a crap?!!?!?!!? No!

But, I didn‚Äôt finish the British version because I could tell from the trailer of the new one that it had a ton of the same jokes in it. I really wanted some of this new incarnation to be fresh for me so I turned off that dry, unfunny British garbage. Don‚Äôt get me wrong I love a lot of British comedy. Hot Fuzz, Love Actually, Intermission, Gosford Park, Four Weddings and a Funeral… I mean, really that list could go on for a while. I do like some British comedy but in the case of Death at a Funeral, we American‚Äôs just do it better.

I mentioned a moment ago that the script is the same between the two movies, well, that’s true and not true. It’s true in the sense that the action is all the same, the plot points, the characters, even the dialogue for the most part. This new Death is better though because of all the verisimilitude in the dialogue with characters constantly talking over one another; lots of adlibbing etc. It just makes it so much more believable. But first, before I go on, here’s the story. Our hero, Aaron, is holding a funeral for his father who insisted his funeral be held at his own residence.  Aaron and his wife, Michelle (Regina Hall) have been living with Aaron’s parents to help pay the bills and save for their own place. Aaron’s brother, Ryan (Martin Lawrence) is an author and is never around and is an altogether douche bag. Their family is huge and they all get together for this funeral where nothing can possibly go right. The real crux is when they realize that their father had been sleeping with a midget and the midget wants what should have been left to him in the deceased’s will. He wants money. So far I haven’t given anything away that wasn’t in the trailers, so nothing is spoiled here. This is a true blue comedy from the start.

Chris Rock does a great job portraying the hard working brother. Martin Lawrence serves well as the sleazy, rich brother and all the other cast members work really well together making for a pretty hilarious slapstick comedy through to the end. I mean, the audience was going nuts throughout the entire movie. That says a lot.  There are several other stand-out performances in Death that shouldn’t go unnoticed. Zoey Saldana plays the “straight-man” character really well opposite James Marsden who is just balls out hilarious. A note about Marsden’s character: he is played by none other than Alan Tudyk in the 2007 version. I was very excited when I saw Tudyk playing the part because I love him in other features such as Serenity (and Firefly) as well as A Knight’s Tale, but he just didn’t even compare to Marsden’s portrayal of the accidentally drugged up fiancé to the Saldana character. Marsden needs to be in more comedies- end of story.  And there’s another thing, Sheperd Book (Ron Glass) was in the new Death! For all of you who do not know (and shame on you!), Sheperd Book was also in Firefly and Serenity. I just thought that was a crazy coincidence.  Another crazy coincidence that occurred this weekend was that we watched 10 Things I hate About You (1999) and I love Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew so, it was fun to watch the teen comedy remake again after all these years. But the coincidence is that the yellow house that Kat and Bianca live in is the very same YELLOW house where Frank black lived in in the TV series Millennium!!!! So, it’s just crazy coincidence that all these things I love share so many of the same things! Oh AND our very own b-gizzle, who avidly reads our reviews, is going to Seattle this very week where all of these movies/TV shows were filmed!!!!

Ok, so not all of them were filmed in Seattle but still. It had to be said. I love it when all the things I love end up having amazing connections with each other. It makes it seems like I was meant to love them. So, if you still have leftover spare change from when you went to see How to Train Your Dragon or Date Night, then you should definitely go see Death at a Funeral. It will make you laugh and it will almost definitely make you puke. You will enjoy it.

Recent posts by Desiree

• The Joneses - April 26th, 2010
• Date Night - April 12th, 2010
• How to Train Your Dragon - March 29th, 2010
• Newsworthy: "Wizard of Oz" on the Silver Screen - March 16th, 2010
• Shutter Island - February 22nd, 2010

Digg

Stumble Upon

Del.icio.us

Buzz