Death at a Funeral (Average Unnecessary Remake)

I saw Death at a Funeral this past Wednesday and it was a mixed bag. Now, I didn't even know that this is a remake of a 2007 British film of the same name up until a couple weeks ago. It befuddles me on why Hollywood decides to remake a film only after three years when the original came out. I mean I understand that Hollywood will make remakes of any kind of film that they feel like that can make a quick buck on. Some remakes are actually better than the other original movie (Ocean's Eleven, The Departed, Insomnia). Some remakes are average (Funny Games, Great Expectations, I Am Legend). Then there are some that are unfathomably bad pieces of shit (The Wicker Man, Poseidon,Planet of the Apes). Then we have have Death at a Funeral, which is just not necessary at all.

In 1998 Universal Studios felt the need to remake the classic Alfred Hitchcock film, Psycho. It is a shot by shot remake of the original except that it is in color. Vince Vaughn played Norman Bates (WTF) and Anne Heche played Marion Crane, who was brutally murdered in the shower. This is back when she was bangin' Ellen (ewww). Anyway it also starred William H. Macy, Viggo Mortenson, and Jullianne Moore. Plus it was directed by Gus van Sant, hot from his award winning film Good Will Hunting. Later the man would win the Palm de Ore at the Cannes Film Festival. I wonder if this was an experiment by Universal to see how much money they could make from a shot to shot remake of the original. Well it super failed and that means to never mess with a classic. It's just like if you remade Citizen Kane. If they did Orson Welles would be rolling over in his grave.

That's besides the point. Death at a Funeral is an unnecessary remake made more marketable towards American audiences because a lot of Americans have varying opinions on the dry British humor. As we speak the film has already grossed more than the original in one weekend (original only made 8 million at B.O.). Like Psycho the film is unbelievably faithful to the source material and it even has a good and funny cast. This includes Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Danny Glover, James Madsen, Zoe Saldana, Loretta Devine, Keith David, Luke Wilson, and more. Plus it's directed by Neil LaBute who directed some good decent movies like Nurse Betty and Lakeview Terrace. This is also the man who directed the horrible train wreck called The Wicker Man.

The film is better than I expected, but I really did not have high expectations for it in the beginning anyway. A quick summary of the movie is that a family is holding a funeral for their father and every possible thing that can go wrong, does go wrong. The film wastes its talented cast. Chris Rock is decent as the straight man. They didn't give Martin Lawrence or Luke Wilson anything to do. James Masden tries to hard to be funny, but he does have a couple of laughs. Danny Glover was funny as a cankerous old man. I did not like Tracy Morgan at all. I do not think he is very funny and his voice just gets on my nerve. Granted I have only watched a couple of films that he is in, but if those films are any indication of his comedic talent then I am not very impressed at all. The film results to some potty humor, and I did laugh at that even though I am ashamed of myself for that. I can't help it. Bathroom humor always brings out the juvenile side in me.

This is not a bad remake, but there was no reason to remake it, since the first one got mixed to positive reviews. Plus it's only been three years since the first one and that just annoys the fuck out of me. It is not bad, but it didn't have to be made in the first place and doesn't really add anything different. I haven't seen the original so I can't judge it off of that. Skip it.