Death at a Funeral review

The idea of America remaking anything from overseas is considered... how shall I put it... the worst idea imaginable in our cinematic world. There's tons of reason why it's a bad call, but very few reason why it can work. By the way we aren't the only country that does this, Sweden's been known to remake movies and shows as well although I can't tell you what their success rate is. Often with any sort of remake if it doesn't work it could be a million things but generally there's a few usual suspects. Gus Van Sant's "Psycho" didn't work, A: because remaking it wouldn't really add anything to the story (or stories considering there is sequels) and B: because he was so scared of screwing it up, he basically made a straight by the book remake of it scene for scene, word for word and in turn it sucked. Other times it's because of poor casting choices ('Point of No Return'), poor directing choices (the Pang Brothers managing to fuck up a remake of their own film 'Bangkok Dangerous') or simply a studio that isn't interested in telling the right story (FOX and the shit burger that was 'The Day the Earth Stood Still').

When remakes DO work like in that case of 'The Departed', 'Insomnia' or hell I'll be nice in throw 'Friday the 13th' in there because really they got that shit right for a change; it's because the people involved understand how these stories need to be told to make them actually work no matter what other changes occur. While I won't say Neil LaBute's remake of 'Death at a Funeral' is on par with some of those (mainly the first two), I will say that it works, it is surprisingly funny and it successfully handles on ensemble in one place for the entire movie; all of which is fucking hard to do while not boring the shit out of the audience. Now trading terms of black comedy- for black comedy (the second referring to making it an almost all black cast) is another issue; one that tends to inspire idiotic beliefs that it'll be a stereotypical movie of that nature, and as annoying as it is that people think that at first glance they do have a long line of evidence to support that. Add Chris Rock (who it feels like we haven't seen in years) and Martin Lawerence (who hasn't done anything of even mild importance in years) and it appears to be moving in on Tyler Perry turf, but with better names.

No, in fact both Rock and Lawerence play well in the film. But aren't really the stars per-say. Rock sure, but Lawerence plays in the the supporting cast which perhaps steals a great deal of the show. James Marsden continues his supporting comic reign on the world, Zoe Saldana also continues to play up the fact that she's pretty, can act and be funny. Danny Glover as the constantly pissed off Uncle Russell who hits and demeans Norman, Tracy Morgan's character. He and Luke Wilson's conversations were perhaps one of my highlights as their chemistry was near perfect. Everything's filled out with Kieth 'They Live' David, Loretta Devine, Regina Hall and Columbus Short, who is well on his way to becoming well known and making some pretty decent film choices to display his range. Everybody is given a chance to shine in the film and they all succeed and right there might be why this film works as well as it does.

Frank Oz's original 'Death at a Funeral' was... to some a modern comedy classic. I thought it was funny, but nothing beyond that. Much like how I feel about LaBute's. They again used Dean Craig's screenplay and wisely didn't change much if any of the jokes, but manages to make some of the ones that weren't too funny in Oz's, extremely funny while at the same time missing the mark on some of the other ones that did work. The slightly added slap stick humor is also done pretty well and helps to provide an escape from the constant dry humor that fills the whole picture. It's like a balancing act that the whole time you're waiting to topple over all the way and it never does. It's nice to see a non-Apatow mainstream comedy accomplish something again. Seriously it feels like most of the comedies that do work now are either made by him or involve people that often work really close with him.

This also isn't Chris Rock's first run in with remaking a foreign property. His last directorial effort and his best in my book 'I Think I Love My Wife' was based on the french film 'Chelsea in the Afternoon'. So perhaps Rock as an eye for seeing things that can work well over here that may or may not need some extra padding or re-working. I won't lie there's better films out right now you could watch, but this is one of the few comedies to come out this spring that actually can make you laugh successfully.