"Death at a Funeral" Movie Trailer Review

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

I'm generally one not to judge a film solely because it's a remake, but this is ridiculous. I haven't seen Frank Oz's British film "Death at a Funeral," which this film is a remake of (note that it only came out two years ago and is in English), but I have seen the trailer. I've now seen the trailer for the remake (directed by Neil Labute, ordinarily known for darker-than-dark comedies and, uh, "The Wicker Man"). I sincerely have to ask, what's the point?

The film, like it's British counterpart, is about a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations going on at a patriarch's funeral. Chris Rock leads an ensemble cast including Tracy Morgan, Luke Wilson, Martin Lawrence, James Marsden and Danny Glover.

Every situation in the trailer is moment-for-moment taken from the original. A man takes hallucinogenics thinking they're aspirin. The body in the casket is not the right body. The casket is knocked over and the body falls out. The two sons discover that their father was having a secret affair with a dwarf named Peter (portrayed by Peter Dinklage, who also played him in the British film). This isn't just a remake--it's a copy-paste job only replacing the British actors with famous African American comedians.

The film doesn't really even look that bad--it just looks trivial when the original has much of the same basic humor and the exact same plot, and above all else, it was released so recently that surely the original film still is on many people's minds.

Neil Labute is such a talented filmmaker, and it's a shame to see him waste his time on such a project, but overall it looks as if it'll be a watchable if entirely unnecessary piece of work. I'd be much more interested in seeing the original, myself.

View the trailer for "Death at a Funeral" below. Thoughts?