Death at a Funeral

Death at a Funeral is pretty well a shot for shot remake of a British film of the same name from a couple of years ago. Thus Matthew MacFadyn becomes Chris Rock, Rupert Grave becomes Martin Lawrence, Peter Vaughn becomes Danny Glover, Kris Marshall becomes Columbus Short, Alan Tudyk becomes James Marsden and Peter Dinklage becomes, well, Peter Dinklage. The plot follows a family gathering for a funeral and there following a whole host of complications including blackmailing dwarf and accidentally ingested hallucinogenics.
The original, directed, by Frank Oz, was by no means a great film but it had a kind of energy and fun to it that made it funny and entertaining, in many resembling a 21st Century take on an old-fashioned theatrical farce.

So what of the American version. Well, its well done, the cast do a solid job - Chris Rock makes a surprisingly good straight man caught at the centre of the maelstrom, Martin Lawrence manages to turn down the irritation factor, Zoe Saldana shines and is the one unquestionable improvement from the original. The direction from Neil LaBute is certainly slick and eveything feels very professionally done, but maybe that's part of the problem, or maybe its that it just doesn't feel so fresh as the original and there are no surprises here. Whatever the reason, the result feels well polished and well executed, but rather flat and lacking the crucial sense of fun and energy of the original.

Overall - 5.5/10 - Very well done, but rather flat. If you've seen the British version, this adds very little, if not it might be entertaining enough.