Some time in the last month or so, while seeing one of the many movies I've gone to the theater for, I caught a trailer for an upcoming movie, Death at a Funeral. But I was feeling a sense of familiarity about the whole thing as the trailer rolled. Finally, the friend who went with me leans over and asks, "is this a remake?" Sure enough, when the title finally appeared, we knew.I'd been vaguely aware of the 2007 British film; my friend had actually seen it and even had it on DVD. I was pledged then and there to borrow the DVD and watch it.
Directed by Frank Oz and starring a raft of recognizable British actors (plus American Alan Tudyk), the movie is a farcical black comedy surrounding a series of calamities that occur as a couple tries to hold a funeral in their home for the man's departed father. Startling revelations, unintentionally consumed drugs, and other hilarity ensues.
The movie isn't a riot throughout, but it does provide a few good laughs in its brisk 90 minutes. The cast is quite good and manages to mine a little extra out of the script. While I suppose there is room for improvement in the forthcoming American adaptation, there isn't anything particularly "British" about the humor (at least, not in my estimation), so I'm not sure a remake is really necessary -- particularly so soon after the original.
In any case, I'd give this film a B-. If you like your comedy on the lowbrow end of highbrow, it's probably one for you to check out.
5 comments:
Oh, SURELY you'll prefer the one with Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence & Danny Glover!
;-)
At what point are the remakes going to catch up to the current time? What happens then... will Hollywood be remaking future movies? Will the actors age at different rates? Will there be a doppler effect on the colors on the film that the studios will need to anticipate and correct for?
Holy crap! I thought Roland was making a joke, but I looked up the new one and he was dead serious. Martin Lawrence??? Does anyone think he's uh... well... anything but a total tool? It also has Tracy Jordan er... Morgan in it. Also the eh, existing stylings of Luke Wilson. Way to take a funny film and turn it into a crap fest. I have no idea who put that together, but they need to be psychologically evaluated.
I see they did keep Peter Dinklage, so we should assume some of the basic plot is the same? Gads! Speaking of Mr. Dinklage... when do we get to see A Game of Thrones?
Yes, from the trailer, this looks to be damn near a shot-for-shot remake of the original. Lines of dialogue seemed to get an occasional "Americanization," but it looked to me like exactly the same movie.
So, yeah... I don't get it.
As for A Game of Thrones, still no word on whether HBO has decided to pick up the pilot for a series order. We'll see...
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