When Aaron and Ryan’s father passes away, the ceremony is more like a three-ring circus than a funeral. This is the wacky backdrop for the comedy Death at a Funeral that is suppose to generate a lot of laughs. While some parts are funny, as a whole, the movie doesn’t reach it’s ultimate goal.
Death at a Funeral is a remake of a 2007 British movie with the same title. This version is directed by Neil LaBute (Lakeview Terrace) and is written by Dean Craig, who also wrote the original 2007 story.
Aaron (Chris Rock), a tax account who dreams of being a best-selling author, and his wife Michelle (Regina Hall, Law Abiding Citizen) have been living and helping to take care of his parents ever since his father retired five years ago. They have been saving up to buy a new house and they’ve been working hard on having their first child.
Ryan (Martin Lawrence) IS a best-selling author, who left home in California for New York City and hasn’t been seen since he hit it big time. To say there is a sibling-rivalry between these two would be a huge understatement.
The day doesn’t get off to a good start when the wrong body is delivered and things keeping going downhill as more family and friends arrive.
Oscar (James Marsden, X-Men) is nervous about having to spend the day around his girlfriend and Aaron’s cousin Elaine’s (Zoe Saldana, The Losers) father Duncan (Ron Glass, TV’s Barney Miller) because he’d prefer his daughter to date the more successful Derek (Luke Wilson), who she already had a hot, but short relationship with and who is going to be at the funeral thanks to dear old dad.
To ease Oscar’s tension, Elaine gives him what she thinks is a Valium, but turns out to be a hallucinogenic drug made by her pharmacology student brother Jeff (Columbus Short, Armored). When they arrive at the funeral, Oscar is flying higher than a kite.
Family-friend Norman (Tracy Morgan) is in charge of picking up Aaron’s grumpy, foul-mouthed Uncle Russell (Danny Glover). He is more concerned about an abnormal pigment problem on his hand and he keeps chasing Duncan, a doctor, around to get a diagnosis while he is busy trying to console Aaron’s mom, Cynthia (Loretta Devine, First Sunday).
Finally, there is a mysterious dwarf (Peter Dinklage, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) that no one recognizes wandering around the area. We find out that he has a secret about Aaron’s father and he wants to be paid to keep quiet or else he’ll tell Aaron’s mom.
So many storylines that all have the potential for laughs, but the two that work the best are James Marsden as the drugged up and spaced out boyfriend and Danny Glover as the crude uncle.
Marsden and Glover are known more for their tough guy roles than being funny. James as Cyclops in the X-Men movies and Danny as Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon films. When given the opportunity and decent material, they both show they can be quite funny.
However, Russell’s bathroom scene with Norman and Oscar’s scene hanging naked off the side of the house with Jeff both start off funny, but both end in poor taste.
Peter Dinklage, who played the same role in the original 2007 movie, does a humorous job as the conniving little person. Luke Wilson is perfectly pitiful as the ex-boyfriend who can’t accept that his ex-girlfriend has moved on with out him.
Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence are suppose to be the stars of the movie, but neither do much to make you laugh. Tracy Morgan has had 2 comedies come out in recent months and he is not funny in either one. If it was not for Oscar, you’d probably never even remember that the beautiful Zoe Saldana or Columbus Short were in this movie.
There is a lot going on in this film for only a 90 minute runtime, but thankfully Neil LaBute keeps the action moving quickly. Dean Craig gets a credit for writing the 2010 Death at a Funeral, but after watching a trailer for the 2007 Death at a Funeral, it seems like the only thing he changed was the cast, except for Peter Dinklage. This may be the easiest credit anyone ever got in Hollywood.
While Death at a Funeral may not reach the lofty expectations that some people have for it because of the amount of talent in it, I laughed at times and I think you will too if you give it a chance.