callanvass

23 May 2012

Game cast doesnt make up for this colossal disappointment.

Aaron's father's funeral is today at the family home, and everythinggoes wrong: the funeral home delivers the wrong body; a cousin givesher fiancé a Valium from her brother's apartment, not knowing herbrother is dealing drugs - it's LSD and the fiancé arrives at thefuneral wildly stoned; Aaron's younger brother, Ryan, a successfulwriter, flies in from New York broke but arrogant; one uncle is angryover his daughter's choice of boyfriends, and the other is cranky andcoarse. Add an ovulating wife, a jealous ex-boyfriend, and a shortstranger who wants a word with Aaron - what could he want? Wouldanother death solve Aaron's problems? And what about the eulogy? An incredible comedy cast gives way to overly crude material. I laughat crude stuff, as long as it has a heart, but this doesn't. The scenewhere Danny Glover Takes a dump and Tracey Morgan Gets crap all overhim was the only laugh I got.Bottom line. I'd suggest the original over this. Trust me you'll feelmuch more satisfied.3 ½ 10

Joshua Bozeman

23 May 2012

Hilarious. Equal to or Better than the Original

I saw the original on DVD shortly after it came out. Loved it. It wasquirky, ridiculous, and the humor mostly subtle. The remake, I had mydoubts about. You just shouldn't mess with such a funny movie,definitely not this soon after the original. So, I went in setting thebar low, wasn't even going to see it at all, until a friend invited meto go check it out.I loved it. The humor is definitely not subtle, it's more in your faceand over the top, it's hallmark American film comedy, but it works onalmost every level. I don't usually care for poop humor, but the scenewith Tracy Morgan had everyone in the theatre rolling. I had fears thatthis would have a lot of the stereotypical black comedy trademarks, butit didn't. It was comedy anyone could enjoy, without a lot of the jokesthat a lot of white audiences just don't get.Marsden's character never went too overboard for me, they played itwell, and though his antics lasted the whole film, they were originalenough and varied enough that they didn't start to tire me out. Rockwas the straight guy for the most part, his one liners made me chucklea couple of times, but nothing too funny. Morgan was hilarious with therash stuff and the toilet (literally) humor. Martin Lawrence'scharacter was poorly written- his lines were annoying and I don't thinkI laughed at him once. I think that came down to the script and not hisperformance, even though he did get a bit annoying in parts.Luke Wilson was pretty much pointless here, not offering much in termsof anything worthwhile. Again, script issues.The editing was a bit off. Jokes that could have landed were ruined bycuts that came too soon, quickly transitioning to another character'saction. That stood out several times especially in the first half.Compared to the original, it held up well. I think I may have likedthis one better, which is definitely a surprise to me. The comedy wasmuch less black comedy and more traditional- much louder than theoriginal. Much more high key overall. It all worked though. Highlyrecommend.

21 May 2012

Deadly dull comedy

Usually when Hollywood does a remake, it's done for one of two reasons: either the studio believes the original was such a hit that a slightly-off carbon copy will make money, too, or it's a successful foreign film they pick up on the cheap so they can do a quick translation of it in order to make money, too.The reasons for Sony Pictures doing a remake of Death at a Funeral are a lot less clear, except for the `make money' part.[...]

Prairie Miller

20 May 2012

Cinema.com: Post-mortem grossout, bawdy bereavement, laugh-out-lewd feces fun and games, and a little gay dwarf tossing as a served up side order of midget mockery. Not a movie to die for."

Stephanie Zacharek

18 May 2012

An imperfect comedy, but as a movie with a mostly black cast, made by a white director, that isn't being marketed strictly according to color lines, it's a step forward.

Peter Moxom

18 May 2012

How to spoil a good movie.

After watching and thoroughly enjoying the 2007 version at a friend'splace, I thought I would get my own copy. Unfortunately, I didn't knowabout this remake until I played the disc. I'm afraid this just didn'twork for me. The scene set-ups did nothing to help suspension ofdisbelief, rather the opposite. I couldn't transcend the sense that Iwas just watching actors trying to be funny with inappropriate linesdelivered with poor timing, as opposed to the original version thatemployed irony instead. I can't understand why this movie grossed thefigure mentioned above, unless others made the same mistake I did. Thedisc I bought now resides somewhere near the bottom of my trash bin.

18 May 2012

TERRIBLE

This review is from: Death at a Funeral (DVD) THIS WAS THE WORST DVD I HAVE EVER SEEN. THEY SHOULD GIVE THIS GARBAGE TO YOU FOR FREE. THE WORST ACTING I HAVE EVER SEEN. NOT FUNNY AT ALL. I'M SORRY I PAID FOR THIS MESS.

17 May 2012

Always remember that funeral in an anagram for real fun

My family treats funerals pretty much like they're any other social gathering. I even had the misfortune of having to bury my prom date over Labor Day Weekend 2009, during which I nearly took my mother's head off when she asked me to give her a who's-who while I was desperately trying not to implode. Consequently I found this to be far more realistic than the original British version with its hot-running emotions, and identified with Chris Rock's character Aaron the whole time as he chokes down his anger at all the screwups and obsequious false-sympathy clichés that everyone spouts off simply out of social convention. Nobody is calm and collected if the funeral home brings the wrong corpse unless they're on tranquilizers, and I loved it when Aaron snaps "Since when does 'dead' beat 'sick?'" when his brother says their dad's in a better place now. And this is all before we get into the mistaking of hallucinogens for tranquilizers, cranky and crotchety Uncle Russell, and Dad's secret boyfriend showing up.

Marshall Fine

16 May 2012

Essentially confirmed what I suspected, based on the commercials: that everything that was meticulously etched in the original would be scrawled in crayon in this version.

16 May 2012

Not as Funny as Hoped -

"Death at a Funeral" has a top notch cast, including Chris Rock, Luke Wilson, Danny Glover and Martin Lawrence to name just a few. However, it ends up being a dumb movie with people doing dumb things. The story revolves around a patriarch's funeral, which turns into a chaotic whirl of people doing dumb things. The situations are outrageous, from the wrong person being in the casket to main characters taking LSD and acting like the movie is actually funny. There is a British version of the same movie and it is not much better. So even if you sprinkle the movie with top notch stars, the script still matters. It is not funny, everyone is yelling, angry, or tuned out on drugs.

Trevor Johnston

16 May 2012

Although it still only just gets away with sundry homophobic and size-ist gags, there's a tad more zing than the original, though if you caught that already, be warned: this is a scene-for-scene retread.

15 May 2012

Another Re-STEAL??

I've not sat to watch this movie and I don't plan to. It's nothing more than another ripoff of an original british title that was produced in 2007. Think about it, that's only THREE YEARS before some half-wit unoriginal schmuck decided he felt like stealing the idea and adapting the story to a black american family. Get a clue hollywood, if you can't present original ideas, don't present them at all!

renshaw_b

14 May 2012

See the original

The original British version is much better. It had more subtle humorand was all the more better for it. This follows typical Americanhumor, and decides if your not slapped in the face with it, it can'tpossibly be funny. While I find Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence funnysometimes, they are much better when they aren't shouting at the top oftheir voice. Just not a huge fan of the loud African-American talk(yelling mostly). It just gets on the nerves and doesn't quite pull offbeing funny.If the loud slapstick humor is your thing, then this version is foryou. But if you prefer a bit more intelligent humor, go see theoriginal version.

tavm

14 May 2012

I was quite entertained by this version of Death at a Funeral

This is another picture I watched with my movie theatre working friend.It's a remake of a Frank Oz-helmed film for Britain that came out justthree years ago. This version was directed by Neil LaBute with a castthat included Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Luke Wilson,Zoe Saldana, James Marsden, Peter Dinklage (the only one to reprise hisrole from the previous version), and Danny Glover. Many of the people Ijust mentioned provided many good laughs, especially Marsden as adrugged wanderer, though there were also some-pardon the pun-dead spotsas well. Still, this was quite an entertaining comedy to me that didn'tbecome too unbelievable in the way things happened. Since I hadn't seenOz' version, however, I can't compare them yet. So on that note, that'sa recommendation for Death at a Funeral.

Joshua Starnes

08 May 2012

A little more tweaking for the actual actor's voices to come through, instead of trying to put them into pre-concieved places, may have worked better, but on the whole, it's still an excellent example of how the ensemble comedy should work.

08 May 2012

Great funny movie

This review is from: Death at a Funeral (DVD) Heard good things about the original, which I had not seen yet, but I love Chris Rock, so we gave this a try. The only original character from the British version returned to play his role again, and I felt it was even funnier in the American version! Maybe it's because I'm USA, but I think this one was better than the original, although the storyline from Britain was a stellar choice. I think the Chris Rock version is far better. NO CHILDREN,make your own choice on age, should view this. Really sexual connotations.

Rick Kisonak

06 May 2012

So strained, noisy and mirthlessly scatological, it's hard to believe it features Rock and Morgan as opposed to a cast of latex cartoons with Eddie Murphy inside them.

sandtonvideo

06 May 2012

Missed opportunity for a different spin

DEATH AT A FUNERAL (2010) Chris Rock has taken the 2007 English comedy"Death at a Funeral", and set it in America, where the patriarch of anAfrican-American family has just died. His will requests that thefuneral service take place in their large home, where Chris' characterAaron lives with his wife and mother. Aaron has a "practical" job,while his younger brother Ryan (Martin Lawrence) is a successfulwriter, something that Aaron has dreamed of doing himself. Theirrivalry is one of a number of plot threads, including a cousin whoseboyfriend has mistakenly taken a hallucinogen instead of a valium, acantankerous uncle, and a mysterious stranger. All of these plot lines(and more) weave through an increasingly dysfunctional funeral service,and will all manage to be tied up by the end. It is a good script, andmy big objection to the film is that it almost duplicates the 2007film, with a different cast. I think a great opportunity was lost tomake a film that was much more African-American in tone; thesecharacters are too ethnicity-challenged, mainly because the script isnearly unchanged. For those who have seen the original, this will addno new wrinkles, and so will not be particularly funny. For those whohaven't, it could be a clever, fun comedy. My instincts are, though,that the script is funnier set among the "stiff-upper lip" English thanamong a predominantly African-American group in LA.

Dustin Putman

04 May 2012

A mean-spirited, chaotic, headache-inducing act of desperation that largely relies upon running gags that overstay their welcome interspersed with a lot of screaming, cavorting, and running in and out of rooms.

04 May 2012

Death at a Funeral

This review is from: Death at a Funeral (DVD) Below par movie. Relied on bathroom humor. Not particularly funny. Below Danny Glover's standards.