“Hi-jinks
at the wake of a recently-
deceased respected pillar of the
community who appears to have a
skeleton rattling around in his closet
is the storyline for the wildly funny Death At A Funeral, a well-paced
comedy that marries classic slap-
stick to modern humour...”
AS MOURNERS CONVERGE ON THE FAMILY HOME of a dear, departed relative in Los
Angeles, they cannot even begin to imagine the chaos that is about to unearth
a deeply buried secret and a second body that will need urgent attention.
Son Aaron (a wonderfully over-the-top Chris Rock: Grown Ups; Madagascar)
is organising the funeral and is horrified to discover that the body in the
coffin is not that of his father. But there are more shocks in store.
Widow Cynthia (Loretta Devine: Crash; Waiting To Exhale) is never happy
and continually berates her daughter-in-law Michelle (Regina Hall: First
Sunday; Scary Movie 1-4) for not providing her with grandchildren. With
the arrival of her favourite son Ryan (Martin Lawrence: Big Momma's House;
Bad Boys I & II), a spendthrift and broke novelist, Cynthia becomes single
minded and simmering sibling rivalries threaten the peace of the gathering.
Lovely niece Elaine (Zoe Saldaña: Avatar; Star Trek) arrives with her
fiancé Oscar (James Marsden: Enchanted; X-Men) — who has accidentally
taken a hallucinogenic drug and is away with the fairies (sorry, cherubs!)
— accompanied by her brother Jeff (Columbus Short: Quarantine; Stomp
The Yard), who has been careless with his illegal drugs.
Elaine is dismayed to discover that family friend Norman (Tracy Morgan: 30
Rock; First Sunday; Cop Out) has brought along her former boyfriend Derek
(Luke Wilson: Old School; The Royal Tenenbaums), who has been invited
by her strict father Duncan (Ron Glass: Lakeview Terrace; Serenity).
Norman has also collected the elderly and cantankerous wheelchair-bound Uncle
Russell (the wonderful Danny Glover: 2012; Lethal Weapon 1-4).
Add to this the less-than-holy Reverend Davis (Keith David: ATL; First Sunday),
who is conducting the service; the sexy 18-year-old Martina (Regine Nehy) and
the spectre at the feast in the shape of Frank (the excellent and wonderfully-dark
Peter Dinklage: Elf; The Station Agent — Peter also played the same
role in the original 2007 version of Death At A Funeral), who after revealing
a shocking secret blackmails the family, and you have the perfect recipe for
disaster!
The film opens with beautiful drawings and barely a clue to the high-energy
riot that is about to be unleashed. Toilet humour is messy with the "yuk" factor,
but happily kept to a minimum and actually manages to be funny. With a plethora
of talented comedians and hilarious happenings in Death At A Funeral,
there must have been a glut of corpsing!
Who else will be given the hallucinatory drugs? Will a naked man on the roof,
a spilt coffin, a former boyfriend, sibling rivalry and a potentially-embarrassing
body upset the funeral arrangements? Some of the film's critics have drawn unfavourable
comparisons with the 2007 British film of the same name, but both have their
merits and the 2010 version kept us watching and dug up more than enough laughs
to be a satisfying comedy.
Death At A Funeral also features Kevin Hart as Brian. Music is by Christophe
Beck; Director of Photography is Rogier Stoffers, ASC; Produced by Chris Rock
(Good Hair; Everybody Hates Chris), William Horberg (Milk; The Kite
Runner), Share Stallings (upcoming A Few Best Men; Curious George 2)
and Laurence Malkin (upcoming A Few Best Men; Caffeine), Sidney Kimmel
(Adventureland; Lars And The Real Girl) and William Horberg; Executive
Produced by Jim Tauber (Management), Bruce Toll (Adventureland; Management),
Dean Craig (Off The Hook) and Glenn S Gainor (Obsessed; Quarantine);
Written by Dean Craig (upcoming Down And Dirty Pictures; Caffeine); and
Directed by Neil LaBute (Nurse Betty; Lakeview Terrace).
• You will be dying to get your hands on Death
At A Funeral and you can pay your respects to the year's most outrageous
comedy when it comes to Blu-ray and DVD on 27 September 2010. RRP: DVD: £17.99;
Blu-ray: £22.99 | Certificate: 15 | Running Time: 92 Minutes.
Blu-ray and DVD Bonus Materials Include: Commentary With Director Neil LaBute
and Chris Rock | Deleted Scenes | Out-takes | Death At A Funeral: Last Rites,
Dark Secrets Featurette | Family Album Featurette | Death For
Real Featurette.
Blu-ray Exclusive Bonus Material: movieIQ+sync and BD-Live connect you to real-time
information on the cast, music, trivia and more while watching the movie. The
Blu-ray Disc version of Death At A Funeral is BD-Live enabled, allowing
users to get connected and go beyond the disc via an Internet-conneced Blu-ray
player to download content.
"With a plethora of talented comedians and hilarious happenings in Death
At A Funeral, there must have been a glut of corpsing!" —
Maggie Woods, MotorBar
“Hi-jinks
at the wake of a recently-