Death at a Funeral (2010)

A funeral ceremony turns into a debacle of exposed family secrets and misplaced bodies.

Director:

Neil LaBute

Writer:

Dean Craig

Stars:

Keith David, Loretta Devine, Martin Lawrence

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Keith David	...	Reverend Davis
Loretta Devine	...	Cynthia
Peter Dinklage	...	Frank
Ron Glass	...	Duncan
Danny Glover	...	Uncle Russell
Regina Hall	...	Michelle
Kevin Hart	...	Brian
Martin Lawrence	...	Ryan
James Marsden	...	Oscar
Tracy Morgan	...	Norman
Chris Rock	...	Aaron
Zoe Saldana	...	Elaine (as Zoë Saldaña)
Columbus Short	...	Jeff
Luke Wilson	...	Derek
Regine Nehy	...	Martina

Storyline

Aaron's father's funeral is today at the family home, and everything goes wrong: the funeral home delivers the wrong body; a cousin gives her fiancé a Valium from her brother's apartment, not knowing her brother is dealing drugs - it's LSD and the fiancé arrives at the funeral wildly stoned; Aaron's younger brother, Ryan, a successful writer, flies in from New York broke but arrogant; one uncle is angry over his daughter's choice of boyfriends, and the other is cranky and coarse. Add an ovulating wife, a jealous ex-boyfriend, and a short stranger who wants a word with Aaron - what could he want? Would another death solve Aaron's problems? And what about the eulogy?

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Plot Keywords:

funeral | family secret | death | valium | eulogy | 

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Taglines:

On April 16th, no one will rest in peace.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, drug content and some sexual humor

Details

Official Sites:

Sony [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 April 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Festa col morto

Filming Locations:

917 Buena Vista Street, South Pasadena, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$16,217,540 (USA) (16 April 2010)

Gross:

$42,739,347 (USA) (2 July 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Screen Gems, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Wonderful Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the original Death at a Funeral screenplay, the character that Peter Dinklage ended up playing was of average height and not written as an Achondroplasic dwarf; the character was changed for him after he auditioned and was cast. He then became the only actor to reprise his role in this remake.

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Goofs

When we first see the naked Oscar hanging from the gable on the roof of the house, he's about three feet from the window. Subsequently, in close-up he's much closer than that, and we can see Jeff reach right out and grab him, as he is much closer to the window now than before.

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Quotes

Cynthia: [to her childless daughter in law] You can't understand death until you've given life.

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Connections

References SpongeBob SquarePants (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Papa Was a Rollin' Stone"
Written by Norman Whitfield (as Norman J. Whitfield) and Barrett Strong
Performed by The Temptations
Courtesy of Motown Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Watch the original instead

Let me cut it short. There was a refreshing, funny, utterly lovable and enjoyable death - comedy titled Death at a Funeral. It's not even outdated, came out a couple of years ago. This movie tries to live up to the original English comedy, but despite the brilliant actors like Glover and David, it doesn't succeed. It actually made every mistake a remake can make, therefore the original remains brilliant and this one is just a weak copy. Sad, but true. They tried, even tried hard, I admit, but there are things that best remain untouched. Death at a Funeral is one of them. It's a nice try, but will disappear undocumented, unlike the original one that remains a fine example of English black humor.

My recommendation: Watch that one instead.