Death at a Funeral (2010)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Keith Davis, Loretta Devine, Peter Dinklage, Danny Glover, Regina Hall, Ron Glass, Kevin Hart, Martin Lawrence, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan, Chirs Rock, Zoe Saldana, Columbus Short, Luke Wilson

'Whats the point?' is the question a lot of other people including myself would ask after watching the movie. What is the point in remaking the popular British comedy with the exact same dialogues and jokes and only replacing the British star cast with an entire African-American one? Aaron (Rock) has just lost his father and is preparing his funeral. His younger brother Ryan (Lawrence) is a famous author and has gained a lot of respect with the family. Secretly, Ryan is broke and leads a lavish lifestyle just to show the world that he has enough money. Elaine (Saldana) and her fiancee Oscar (Marsden) are on their way to pick up her brother Jeff (Short) before heading to the funeral. Elaine gives Oscar some Valium to ease his nerves, which actually does not turn out to be Valium but a hallucinogenic drug that Jeff has developed for a friend. Oscar hallucinates about a moving coffin and accidentally drops open the coffin. Meanwhile, Norman (Morgan) has to help a crippled and impatient Uncle Russell (Glover) everywhere and manages to get covered in his poop. Ryan and Aaron are in for a surprise when a midget, Frank (Dinklage) reveals to them that their father feels the other way and blackmails them into paying him money to keep his mouth shut. The movie is word-by-word exactly the same as the British original. Considering that the British movie was made just 3 years prior to this one, the core audience remains more or less the same who have seen and enjoyed the original and may not laugh at the same jokes again. Perhaps if the movie had some 'black' or 'nigger' jokes with some slight tweaks here and there, the movie would have been at an entirely different level. If someone hasn't seen the original, they could try this movie first. Once again, what is the point?

Thumbs up: Great performances

Thumbs down: A carbon copy of the original, but written in 'black' ink

Rating: 5.4/10