Death at a Funeral

A modest British romp gets a Hollywood makeover a mere two years later: what’s the story there? Well, solid situation-comedy scenarios are obviously at a premium, so Craig Dean’s fairly traditional farce gets an LA redo, with Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence replacing Matthew Macfadyen and Rupert Graves as warring siblings enduring their father’s chaotic funeral. Hence, the humour takes an uptight social situation and unleashes serial indignities upon it – from mislabelled acid tablets, naked people, splattering bowel movements and even a mystery guest in the compact form of Peter Dinklage (the only actor in both versions). Some of this is crude, much of it predictable, but it is a crowd-pleaser, since director Neil LaBute’s performers willingly play it that bit broader, while an expanded budget brings a somewhat less poky feel. Although it still only just gets away with sundry homophobic and size-ist gags, there’s a tad more zing than the original, though if you caught that already, be warned: this is a scene-for-scene retread.