With such an amazing cast including some of today’s best comedians, how could this comedy turn out so shitty? (pun intended) Death at a Funeral goes for the quirky everything that can go wrong does go wrong feel but ends up with a plain old movie that’s as stiff as the body in the casket they’re having the funeral for. Chris Rock, playing Aaron, has been living with and supporting his father, mother (Loretta Devine), and wife (Regina Hall) who is trying to get pregnant. Martin Lawrence is Aaron ‘s younger and much more successful brother Ryan who everyone adores…except, of course, Aaron. Joined by the rest of his family, Aaron tries to hold a service for his late father but one thing leads to another and you’re supposed to laugh.
The movie starts off slow with everyone heading to the funeral. You’re introduced to each character and their accompanying story lines. You have the beautiful Zoe Saldana as Elaine with her boyfriend (James Marsden) that’s extremely nervous about her family getting together because Elaine’s father doesn’t approve of him. They pick up Elaine’s brother (Columbus Short) who’s a pharmaceutical student with some interesting pills he keeps misplacing. Next you have Tracy Morgan playing Norman who’s a friend of the family but thinks he’s as much part of the family as everybody else. He’s with Derek (Luke Wilson) who’s in love with Elaine and Elaine’s father approves of him so much that he keeps trying to get them together. They are charged to pick up Uncle Russell (Danny Glover) who’s a cranky old disabled man. And finally, you have a mysterious character in a leather jacket nobody in the family really knows. Still with me?
The movie started to pick up when everyone arrived at Aaron’s house for the funeral but sadly, the movie had to resort to physical humor, potty jokes, and over the top antics. Even worse is that those are the best scenes in the movie…and biggest laughs. The funniest scenes come from James Marsden while he’s high off of his mind from drugs he didn’t know he was taking. Since he was so nervous about dealing with Elaine’s dad, Elaine gave him one of her brother’s pills – she thought it was Valium. Of course the high scenes are backed by stereotypical one drop reggae music.
James Marsden and Danny Glover actually made the film manageable for me. James Marsden’s high scenes were really funny and never got old (he’s high almost the entire movie). Danny Glover gave the other best performance as the cranky old man…most people don’t see him as a comedic actor, but he’s great in comedies. He blesses us with this little tidbit, “Let me tell you something about women, they’re smarter than you think they are…but not nearly as smart as they think they are.” The biggest laugh, maybe in disgust, comes from Danny Glover and Tracy Morgan’s scene with Norman assisting the handicapped Uncle Russell in the bathroom…I’ll let you figure out the rest. Tracy Morgan has small patches of brilliance but they’re bogged down by other scenes of boring run on dialogue and a running gag that just gets annoying.
Other than that, all of the parts could’ve been played by anybody…there was nothing special about them at all. It actually felt like Chris Rock was trying not to be funny and just saying his lines as dry as possible. There were a few clever lines from him and other characters thrown in here and there but they felt more like wasted material that should’ve been saved for a good movie or performance. When Aaron tells his wife what a mess the funeral has turned in to she replies, “I don’t know…I think it’s kind of exciting…for a funeral.” Perhaps, but not nearly exciting enough for people to watch this movie in the theaters.
Oh yes, and this was a remake of an English film of the SAME TITLE that came out three years ago. THREE YEARS! They even used Peter Dinklage to play the same character in both! You can see a great post comparing scenes from both movies side by side at Cinemablend [Death At A Funeral Vs. Death At A Funeral: A Scene By Scene Remake Analysis].
Anyway, look for both Columbus Short and the gorgeous Zoe Saldana together next week in The Losers (with many advance screenings) which I hope will be a lot better than this movie. You can check out our post for The Losers Q&A at Wondercon.
