Trailer Review: Death at a Funeral

"Its like someone telling you a joke and then another person telling you the same joke and it just doesn't deliver".


So lets just say it, "This is One Sad TRAILER"! Death at a Funeral is a remake of a 2007 British black comedy of the same name. The original being directed by Frank Oz and the remake directed by Neil LaBute. The basic plot of the movie as you've already seen is the father of this family has died and during the wake crazy shit happens.

Neil LaBute's filmography includes more recently "Lakeview Terrace", "The Wicker Man" and "Nurse Betty". Yup! Haven't seen any of 'em. So it is definitely safe to say that, that streak will continue with "Death at a Funeral". The film is written by Dean Craig who also wrote the original. Already I'm very very upset.

The cast of this movie is...a lot. Chris Rock, who serves as a producer, Martin Lawrence, Danny Glover, Tracy Morgan, Kevin Hart, Uhura..oops sorry I mean Zoe Saldana, Keith David, Luck Wilson, James Marsden, Columbus Short and Peter Dinklage, who plays the same role he did in the original.

I listened to a Podcast today on the art of making a good trailer; who to market it to, how much to include, etc. I LIVE to see trailers! GOOD TRAILERS! So I'm glad that some people/studios actually take pride in taking the time to make good ones. This is not one of them. My curiosity for this one is, did anyone watch the original trailer to the original movie, because its almost exactly, frame for frame, the same thing!!!! I'm sure at some point Chris Rock saw the original and because he doesn't have any original ideas of his own said to himself, "wow this would be more funny if it was an African American family", wave the magical wand and poof! Add a few jokes about how all Asians look the same and you've got yourself a hit on your hands! Right?

Is this really where the remake has gotten to? To not even attempt and make the movie unique and the actors and filmmakers own, is just a pure lazy-ness. And I'm sure you might be asking; "Bobby! How do you know its not different?" If you've watched both trailers you'll realize what I'm talking about. There are even exact lines that are the same in both trailers!!

Anyways my final thoughts on this movie are just that its sad. Stay away from this movie at all costs and take the money you would have spent on seeing the movie and go treat yourself to renting the original on DVD. Now I know the possible reason for the remake might be that, there may not be a whole bunch of people who have never A. Heard of British Comedy or B. Have simply never seen it. Well take this opportunity to expose yourself to something new and open your mind to a different kind of comedy and stay away from this remake that sticks to the same old thing and doesn't even attempt to be original aside from changing the color of skin.

Normally this would be the part where I would determine how much money this movie will make opening weekend but I'm so enraged that I'm hoping that it makes no money! Again guys thanks for reading and....


dueces!
Bobby

(down here)


Here is the trailer to the original movie.