Death at a Funeral (2010)

Aaron's father's funeral is today at the family home, and everything goes wrong: the funeral home delivers the wrong body; a cousin gives her fiancé a Valium from her brother's apartment, not knowing her brother is dealing drugs - it's LSD and the fiancé arrives at the funeral wildly stoned; Aaron's younger brother, Ryan, a successful writer, flies in from New York broke but arrogant; one uncle is angry over his daughter's choice of boyfriends, and the other is cranky and coarse. Add an ovulating wife, a jealous ex-boyfriend, and a short stranger who wants a word with Aaron - what could he want? Would another death solve Aaron's problems? And what about the eulogy?

This cast gets some laughs out of a terrible, lame, vulgar script, which is more than can be said for the original; but a special place should be reserved in infamy for keeping the excrement gag.

To begin with, I have not seen the original film from which this one is based on. I have heard nothing but good things about it though. So when I heard that Hollywood was remaking it with a cast that includes Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Regina Hall (whom I absolutely LOVE) and James Marsden, I had high hopes because it was also being directed by Neil LaBute ("In the Company of Men" and "Nurse Betty"). Well those hopes were dashed within the first few minutes of this movie because I thought this was a terrible waste of talent. I counted the number of times that I laughed and that number totaled 2 times! That's it! As for the story, Mr. Rock plays Aaron, the eldest son of a family whose patriarch passes away. Soon, members of the family, including his brother (Mr. Lawrence), make their way to Aaron's house for the wake. Then a mysterious stranger (Peter Dinklage) shows up and has a shocking secret about their father. The main draw for me with this movie was the cast and they are sorely let down by the whole thing. The script wasn't funny, the directing was lackluster at best and the whole thing just felt too forced. The only bright spot was Mr. Marsden (hence the 2-star rating I have given this). I'm glad I did not see this in theaters because I would've been really mad had I spent $12 on this. As it stands, I only wasted 92 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

**/*****

2/5 Stars