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Mixed or average reviews - based on 25 Critics What's this?

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Mixed or average reviews- based on 43 Ratings

  • Starring: Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence
  • Summary: Directed by Neil LaBute, Death at a Funeral is a hilarious day in the life of an American family come together to put a beloved husband and father to rest. As mourners gather at the family home, shocking revelations, festering resentments, ugly threats, blackmail and a misdirected corpse unleash lethal and riotous mayhem. (Sony Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 25
  2. Negative: 3 out of 25
  1. 88
    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.
  2. 75
    Death at a Funeral does what a good comedy is supposed to do: generate laughter. The humor gradient is lopsided - the second half, which builds comedic momentum, is significantly funnier than the first half, which is mostly set-up. Still, any such unevenness aside, the overall impression is one of enjoyability.
  3. Reviewed by: Nick Schager
    60
    Proving that a comedy’s performers are sometimes more important than its jokes, this remake of Frank Oz’s dreary 2007 British farce of the same name livens up the proceedings by subbing in a comic African-American all-star cast.
  4. 33
    Rock acquits himself nicely as the responsible brother and resident straight man, but everyone else in the cast has apparently been advised to mug shamelessly and yell their lines as loudly as possible.

See all 25 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 20
  2. Negative: 10 out of 20
  1. DanH
    10
    I may have not seen the original 2007 film, but I say this film is probably the best comedy I have ever seen. Honestly, I think it's just a little bit better than The Hangover. Expand
  2. I loved this comedy! I never thought a funeral could provide a backdrop for such hilarity that was found in this film! The action is directed to so many places, but it's so well directed we never lose track of who the characters are, where they are, and everything flows together so brilliantly. I don't have the hindsight of having watched the older movie, so I can just rate this one on its own terms. It's a hilarious comedy with very believable acting. It doesn't really matter so much what happens because it all flows and ties up so well. It's not the world's greatest tale, but it's still an enjoyable film that leaves viewers staring at the screen from beginning to end with one great ride.

    I only have a few complaints. The vulgarity of some scenes can be ridiculous, including several drawn-out nude scenes, covered by clever camera angles, of course. The final eulogy reading attempts to sum up all of the events that had previously happened, which doesn't work so well for this film. We never see the dead father alive in this film, ever, so his death is much less meaningful and the final eulogy loses most of its impact. If you're looking for a fun film to laugh at endlessly, this is the film for you. If you want to learn a valuable lifelong lesson with complex characters that have important backstories, you're in the wrong genre.
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  3. There are good bits and there are bad bits, but this not-too-bad movie (that's been made extremely soon after the original) has good laughs and likeable characters to make this remake a success in its own right. Expand
  4. ChadS.
    4
    As you know, in the primordial days of rock and roll, record companies undermined the 45s of black artists by putting out copycat versions recorded with white singers, and in the process, would then marginalize the original as "race" records. Although nobody could put Little Richard in the corner for any length of time, Pat Boone's version of "Tutti Frutti"(thanks to the segregated radio stations) did get more airplay, which translated into more copies sold. Keeping this historical racial divide in the popular arts under consideration, the idiom "turnaround is fair play" comes to mind, since the black version of "Death at a Funeral" will open on three-thousand screens, while the 2007 Frank Oz original(with an all-white cast) had only received a limited release. As both films are virtually the same, the incentive to seek out this little-seen U.K. film is almost non-existent due to our cinematic isolationism, given the blase attitude that Americans have for foreign films(even English-speaking ones). Similar to Elvis Presley reducing Big Mama Thornton to a lady-in-waiting, the grieving brothers who learn about their closeted father are played by two kings of comedy: Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence, taking over for their lesser-known English counterparts: Matthew MacFayden and Rupert Graves. Not surprisingly, while black people have the edge when it comes to rhythm and blues, the Brits are old pros at black comedy, therefore a better fit for a comedy of manners such as "Death at a Funeral". Playing the straight man are neither one of Rock's, nor Lawrence's strengths, especially to a gay dwarf(Peter Dinklage), and a naked man(James Marsden) high on mescaline. Give me Big Joe Turner's raucuous version of "Shake, Rattle, & Roll", and give me the English manor in the countryside that it sits on. Expand

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