Death At A Funeral (Sony Pictures)
Dead On Arrival
Death At A Funeral boosts a stellar cast. Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan, Martin Lawrence, James Marsden, Danny Glover, Zoe Saldana, Luke Wilson, Regina King, Peter Dinklage and Loretta Devine have all done great work in past movies, but not here. This new version of the 2007 British comedy of the same name is dead on arrival. The humor seems to have been sucked out of every scene.
The movie concerns the funeral of the father of Aaron (Rock) and Ryan (Lawrence). Ryan, the successful younger brother, has flown in for his fathers funeral and all the family is overjoyed to see him. Aaron, the older responsible brother, is annoyed that no one appreciates his support of his parents and the sacrifices he has made for them.
Also at the funeral is cousin Elaine (Saldana). She has her boyfriend Oscar (Marsden) with her along with her brother Jeff (Columbus Short). They have stopped by to pick up Jeff while on the way to the funeral. While at Jeffs apartment Elaine gives Oscar a pill she finds which she thinks is Valium. In reality it is a hallucinogenic.
The funniest parts of the movie are watching the effect of the drug on poor Oscar. As he comes under its influence he ends up naked on the roof of the house where the funeral is taking place. Marsden pulls out all the stops to make Oscar as funny and bizarre as possible.
Sadly the rest of the film comes across as dull and/or silly. Rock never gets to show how funny he can be and Lawrence is saddled with the role of the unlikable brother. Morgan borders on being funny but then his scenes with Glover as an elderly uncle are so offensive the audience just wants them over as quickly as possible.
Saldana and King both show potential in the movie but their characters are not allowed enough development to make an impression. Zaldanas Elaine spends the entire movie chasing after Oscar while Kings Michelle spends her time on screen trying to get her husband, Aaron, to have sex with her.
The film is rated R for profanity and nudity.
Death At A Funeral is one of those movies that showed every funny scene contained in the film in the trailer. There was some real humor there but when these same scenes are shown in the context of the film they come across as less enjoyable.
There is a lot of talent connected with Death At A Funeral but it just doesnt pay off. The storyline as well as the dialogue never catches fire and the characters seem sullen and boring. This is not the way it was supposed to be.
Death At A Funeral ends up being one of the major disappointments of the year. It is a matter of great expectations leading to a very small entertainment payoff.
I scored Death At A Funeral a solemn 4 out of 10.
