I see what Rock is doing here. 1st w/I Think I Love My Wife, now w/this movie.

I'm liking it so far. Anybody else plan on checking this out?

i want to see the og version before i see this one tho (cant believe i still havent).

a lot of people i know dont know its a remake of a movie from a couple of years ago though.

IMO, this'll prolly be funnier.

Didn't the original come out 3, 4 years ago?


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

Like, didnt I *just* rent this....as a new release?

Plus this is aimed a an ENTIRELY different demo. It'll prolly do numbers.

I'm just hoping it doesn't start a wave of remakes of movies made in the past 3 years.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

steady pace.

This looks all kinds of trite and corny.

Every single cliche of black humor w/a funeral backdrop.

To be fair, I didn't see anyone w/a speech impediment...but I'll bet he's in there.

As far as the original, it was decent...good for a few laughs.

I can't see this version being as good, definitely not better.

Too much talent in this flick for it to look so wack.

I think I'm just old. If I were between 19-23 I might be hype.

Looks like the same film with slang. "You mean Daddy was on the Down Low?"

Wait for DVD.

I just watched the original. I can see how similar both films may be, but I can also see how funnier it can be with a Chris Rock and company. No doubt it might not be as good/original, I'm hoping they'll make something with their humor.
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As in, take a foreign movie and set it in America with an all (or mostly) black cast.

Hell if they had done this with the Japanese horror films I wouldn't have stopped watching after the first Grudge remake.

Chris Rock tried this before with his remake of Chloe in the Afternoon.

I don't know, I seriously think it's a good idea.

Mind you, I have little interest in seeing this movie. I'm just glad it was made. It's like, the right track...

just sayin

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Nurse Betty flick in the past.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100414/REVIEWS/100419974

Death at a Funeral (3.5 stars out of 4)

BY ROGER EBERT / April 14, 2010


Cast & Credits
Aaron: Chris Rock
Oscar: James Marsden
Cynthia: Loretta Devine
Frank: Peter Dinklage
Ryan: Martin Lawrence
Michelle: Regina Hall
Elaine: Zoe Saldana
Brian: Kevin Hart
Uncle Russell: Danny Glover
Rev. Davis: Keith David
Duncan: Ron Glass
Norman: Tracy Morgan
Jeff: Columbus Short
Derek: Luke Wilson
Martina: Regine Nehy

Screen Gems presents a film directed by Neil LaBute. Screenplay by Dean Craig. Running time: 92 minutes. MPAA rating: R for language, drug content and some sexual humor.

Oh, I know a lot of "Death at a Funeral" is in very bad taste. That's when I laughed the most. I don't laugh at movies where the characters are deliberately being vulgar. But when they desperately don't want to be--now that’s funny. Consider the scene when Uncle Russell eats too much nut cake and is seized by diarrhea. And Norman wrestles him off his wheelchair and onto the potty, and gets his hand stuck underneath. Reader, I laughed. I'm not saying I'm proud of myself. That's not the way I was raised. But I laughed.

I laughed all the way through, in fact. This is the best comedy since "The Hangover," and although it's almost a scene-by-scene remake of a 2007 British movie with the same title, it's funnier than the original. For the character of Frank, the mysterious guest who wants to speak privately with the dead man's sons, it even uses the same actor, Peter Dinklage, and he's funnier this time. Maybe that's because when a comedy gets on a roll, everything is funnier.

The funeral is taking place at home, because that's how the deceased wanted it. Also living at home are his oldest son Aaron (Chris Rock), Aaron's wife Michelle (Regina Hall), and his mother Cynthia (Loretta Devine). Both Michelle and Cynthia are on his case for having not yet fathered a child. Aaron dreams of publishing a novel, while his younger brother Ryan (Martin Lawrence) has published several, which sound like porn to me, but hey, they're in print.

The mourners arrive after various adventures of the cadaver, and get into all sorts of bizarre and dire trouble in ways that the screenplay carefully explains. How was Elaine (Zoe Saldana) to know that a bottle labeled "Valium" contained a next generation hallucinogen when she gave one to her boyfriend Oscar (James Marsden)? It's an old gag, the guy accidentally freaked out on drugs, but Marsden elevates it to bizarre heights with a rubber face that reflects horror, delight, nausea and affection more or less simultaneously.

There's no use in my providing a blow by blow of the plot, since it's deliriously screwball and it doesn't much matter what happens, as long as something always is. But I can mention what deft timing and high energy this cast has, each actor finding the rhythm for each character instead of all racing about in manic goofiness. Dinklage, for example, is as good at playing dead serious as Tommy Lee Jones, and here he's always on tone for a man who has come for compelling personal reasons. The brothers and Norman don't really wish harm to befall him, but you can see how it does. Then there is a certain logic to how they react. They're only human.

Loretta Devine has a possibly thankless role as the surviving matriarch, but her timing is delicious as she associates the death of a husband with the absence of a grandchild. Both Regina Hall and Zoe Saldana are steadfast in their love in the midst of chaos, and Danny Glover goes over the top as the cantankerous uncle because, well, that's what the role requires.

British actors are rightly known for their skill, and there were some good ones in the 2007 version of the same Dean Craig screenplay. But playing proper upper-crust characters tends to restrain them. The family in "Death at Funeral" is obviously wealthy, but loose--more human. Their emotions are closer to the surface, and these actors work together like a stock company.

Notice too, the way director Neil LaBute directs traffic. Because the action is screwball doesn't mean it can be confusing. Screwball depends crucially on us knowing where key characters are, and why. LaBute juggles parallel actions in the big family home so we understand who's in the bathroom and who's in the living room and why everybody is out on the lawn. There's a smooth logic to it that works like spatial punchlines.

LaBute is a brilliant playwright and director who is usually the director of very dark comedies ("In the Company of Women," "Your Friends and Neighbors"). But a good director is a good director, and LaBute here, like David Gordon Green with "Pineapple Express," masters the form. And oooh, that's a mean line about R. Kelly.

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maybe if i was like 12 id think that was funny...but then again i didnt like the Scary movie franchise either. i just dont think potty humor is funny. like at all. and thats like LITERALLY potty humor.

This is just a review from Roger Ebert. Where's the one from the GOAT?

definitely suggest you see it.

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They're both hilarious. I think everyone did an excellent job. Rock and company added more laugh though. Overall, exactly the same film. Put two by side each other, you have the same scenes and mannerism from each characters.
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I really need to see it

It just doesn't translate as well, you'll feel like the Rock one was MUCH better.

Would have been funnier had we (the audience) not known which big jokes were coming, thanks to the trailer

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can't remember the last time that i've laughed that hard in a movie theatre.

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"It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove

It was aight, but hardly a riot.
The expectation that this Black cast is going to make it super hilarious is unfair.
I see this movie making the point that Black people don't have to be hilarious or bust.
If we're funny just because, cool - but we're interesting as hell to watch, so just let us do what we do without this clownly expectation.
The OG version was cool, but charming and accepted.
To only accept this Black version if it's wall to wall guffaws is ridiculous.
I look at this flick as a challenge of moviegoers expectations of Black performers.

I enjoy this as a movie.

Then, I appreciate the Blackness of it.
I love that they took this movie and remade it Black to show that Black people are more than Madea.
Something has to happen to bring variety to Black cinema.
Shit if I'd known Chris Rock would have been responsible for it.

Great cast.
I'm love that Columbus Short is about to blow the fuck up.
Am I wrong to think that Marsden is gay? Am I wrong to think that's what's kept him from being bigger? Dude is talented either way.
Zoe is the present and the future.
I'm amazed that Tracy Morgan has a career. I'm sure he can read, but I can't see it. I'm sure he can act, but I can't see it. But he's definitely watchable.
I wonder what the deal is with Martin. No press that I've seen.
Chris Rock is uncomfortable to watch onscreen, but if Rock is what's needed to get Blacks in interesting movies, so be it.

>Then, I appreciate the Blackness of it.
>I love that they took this movie and remade it Black to show
>that Black people are more than Madea.
>Something has to happen to bring variety to Black cinema.
>Shit if I'd known Chris Rock would have been responsible for
>it.
>

Y'all know what I'm trying to say, and I ain't gonna go further w/it then that.

I hope he keeps it up.

never saw British version though.

So it was essentially the most fun movie experience in a long time, lol.

The movie itself was pretty good. The background "comedic" music bothered me-- it didn't need those punchline indicating music entrances.

Marsden was outstanding-- best part of the film. Luke Wilson was surprisingly funny. Danny Glover of course did his thing. I can't wait to see Columbus Short become a huge name actor-- he's just one or two right roles away.

And don't tell me Peter Dinklage wasn't brilliant. The man sitting next to me laughed a raspy old man laugh/cough for the next 5 minutes after he wiped his mouth. It was insane.

It almost felt like it was mocking what was going on

And did you catch Danny's homage to the Lethal Weapon series?

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Except for me.
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...if the film had been presented without that score? So every line just sits there, as uncomfortable as it would have been in real life?

We might have been dealing with an all-time classic in uncomfortable comedy.

the fuck was danny glover doing in this movie? he's better than this...

I thought she was gonna have a heart attack during the bathroom scene, she was laughing so hard!!!

Great Cast. Well written. I'm interested in seeing the original to see how they compare.