Movie Review: Death At A Funeral

I’ve yet to watch the original and British version of Death at a Funeral but after watching the American depiction, I am eager to compare the two. The first hour was a bit off and it took awhile to set things in motion. Things just didn’t gel. But after all the players were finally under one roof, the funny started and kept rolling until the credits. Of course with a cast helmed by Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence and Tracy Morgan, how could Death at a Funeral NOT be entertaining?

The entire set up had funny written all over it. Two brothers (Rock and Lawrence) are reunited after years of not seeing each other at their father’s funeral. During the ceremony the two discover something so shocking they try to hide it. The funny begins at their attempt to do so. While all of this is going on, cousin Elaine (Zoe Saldana) tries to control a fiancé (James Marsden) from making a fool out of himself in front of her overbearing father (Ron Glass). Unbeknownst to him, moments before arriving at the service, Oscar took what he believed to be Valium when in truth it was a hallucinogenic, engineered by Jeff (Columbus Short), Elaine’s brother.

As one would assume Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence’s comedic timing was on as usual and definitely enjoyable to watch. Tracy Morgan as friend of the family Norman, longs to be accepted by Elaine (the film never goes into why this is). A bit of a neurotic hypochondriac he brings along with him Elaine’s ex Derek (Luke Wilson). I didn’t care for Luke in this. For some reason he appeared pained. Unlike Marsden, who seemed as if he was having a good time, Wilson gave off the, “I don’t know why I’m here” vibe. Tracy was of course, Tracy. But he wasn’t like his 30 Rock character.

If you are wondering, the hilarious bits are not revealed in the trailer which makes this film worth seeing. It’s worth a matinee.

I rate this film 7/10