Possibly setting a speed record for a remake, “Death at a Funeral” takes a sporadically funny, little-seen (at least here) 2007 British slapstick comedy and faithfully restages it with a B-list American cast.
Both versions were written by Britain’s Dean Craig, with the original helmed by American Frank Oz.
Craig has basically changed only the dialogue for the California-set remake, efficiently if impersonally directed by
playwright-director Neil LaBute with an ensemble headed by a relatively restrained Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence.
Rock plays Aaron, who is supervising the funeral of his father at the home he shares with his mother (Loretta Devine) and his frustrated wife (Regina Hall).
Aaron is seething over all the attention given to his younger brother Ryan (Lawrence), a best-selling author who is visiting from New York City. Especially after Ryan informs Aaron he can’t pay for half the funeral.
But it turns out that’s the least of Aaron’s problems.
His cousin (Zoe Saldana) has accidentally given her fiancé (James Marsden) a hallucinogen, and, before long, he’s knocked over the coffin, spilling the dearly departed on the living room floor.
The appearance of the cousin’s ex (Luke Wilson, whose career seems to be winding down faster than a fake Rolex) at the festivities makes the drug-addled fiancé so jealous that he’s soon perched naked on the roof.
Meanwhile, inside, a height-challenged gay man (Peter Dinklage, the only holdover from the original cast) is trying to blackmail Aaron and his brother.
He wants $300,000 or he’ll show Mom an incriminating picture of him with the dead man.
A preview audience the other night laughed every time Lawrence (who is chasing a jail-bait friend of the family) did a double-take at the photo and joined Rock in an increasingly cringe-worthy series of gay-panic jokes (Columbus Short, as Saldana’s brother, gets the worst of these).
But the audience was really roaring when Aaron’s clueless friend (Tracy Morgan) had a messy accident while placing a crotchety, wheelchair-bound uncle (Danny Glover) on a toilet a bit too slowly.
Two other veterans in the cast, Keith David and Ron Glass, are more successful at holding onto their dignity.
It’s because of a superior cast that this version of “Death at a Funeral” is the rare comedy remake that’s funnier than the original, however slightly. Personally, though, I’m not sure it was worth the effort.