The unnecessary and unwanted remake of the great 2007 British Comedy Death at a Funeral is coming out in a matter of months and the first official trailer for the movie was recently released online.
Frank Oz directed the British version which starred Matthew Macfadyen (Pride & Prejudice, Frost/Nixon) as the main character. This remake, or re-enactment as I would call it, is brought to us by (and stars) Chris Rock.
In an age when moviegoers are drowning in remakes, reboots and re-imaginings of established properties and brands, this movie sadly only comes partially as a surprise – the project began less than a year after the UK version released. That being said, there are remakes, and then there are complete copies. Check out the trailer below.
This version of Death at a Funeral stars Chris Rock, Zoe Saldana, Danny Glover, James Marsden, Luke Wilson, Martin Lawrence, Peter Dinklage, Tracy Morgan and Ron Glass. It is directed by Neil LaBute (Lakeview Terrace, The Wickerman).
Watch the HD version at Yahoo.
I love James Marsden, I love Zoe Saldana and I dig Peter Dinklage and Danny Glover but I am very unimpressed by this. Other than Tracy Morgan being exactly as he is in 30 Rock and Martin Lawrence being unfunny, all of the scenes are practically shot-by-shot imitations of Oz’s Brit version. I wish they allowed Marsden to do something different rather than try to pull off what Alan Tudyk did in the first movie.
They brought back Peter Dinklage to reprise the role of the same character from the original which makes me wonder if this is a completely standalone movie ripoff or if his character just happens to date older men about to die to pull off this scheme (not a spoiler – it’s in this trailer), and this is some sort of sequel for his character (despite everything else playing out exactly the same around him).
Luckily for all of us, from what this trailer shows we don’t need to see the movie since it presents to you the entire story of the film, including the major scenes and character revelations. Will there be some sort of twist or other plot development not taken from the 2007 version?
My recommendation: Go see the original Death at a Funeral, it was very well done and a contender for best comedy of its year.
What did you think of the trailer?
Death at a Funeral opens April 16, 2010 and I’ll be watching Kick-Ass that day instead.
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Really?
I mean…REALLY?
Ok, I have been reading from this site for a few months and I have to say, that it is grating on me. not growing, grating. i know there should be no personal attacks and i am trying to keep it from being personal, so i am directing this at no one but addressing this to the staff. There are often typos on these posts, though maybe not this particular one. Please be more professional and proofread. I am not a brain dead zombie. I can read.
Also, enough with the quote “that being said”. Please be just a bit more creative. again, I am not a brain dead zombie.
and third but not least, for the most part, i have seen that most of the information this website conveys to us is from a third party site, as in “aint it cool news” or some such other source. do you have any real connections anywhere like the ever-bragging movieholenews.net? (who is very annoying for posting constantly saying things like “i’m really bummed i couldn’t make it to the set today where my cousin works today” or something like that)
oh, wait, there is a fourth. it seems that this site is trying to get on the side of people like me who are not brain dead (thanks for NEVER using the word “brilliant” on this site but at the same time, it seems that you are less than happy with movies and hollywood. me too. i come here to see if there is anything as in bios or something coming out) but then why even have a site at all? i mean, is your name “screenrant.com” designed because you don’t like movies and hollywood? please dont post this, i hope this just goes directly to the staff. this email i just wrote so that you can see that we are not all brain dead or at least, i don’t have the virus. i was not bitten and therefore am not smitten.
I saw the trailer and thought it was funny. While we get upset over the remakes, reboots or whatever they’re called, Hollywood is making what they believe is going to sell and if they think something like the “new” Death At a Funeral will sell they’re going to push it. I can’t blame them for that, but am i going to see this movie? Maybe, maybe not I don’t know.
@realist
For a guy so intent on slamming us, it wasn’t very bright of you to use the public COMMENT form to send a message just meant for the staff.
As to typos, it happens. Every post goes through an editor prior to publication but mistakes happen. When people politely point out errors (spelling, grammatical or otherwise) we thank them and fix them.
As to us putting up news broken by other sites, this is an editorial/opinion site (in case you haven’t noticed). What we do here is give you our opinion on the news of the day – we don’t objectively report it. If you want that there are other sites out there like ComingSoon.net, Variety, etc. Feel free to visit them instead of us.
No, we’re not “connected” like some other sites. We don’t have anyone based in LA and it takes a lot of time and energy to develop those relationships and dig up scoops. This site only has ONE person working on it full time.
Again, feel free to find other sites to frequent if our site annoys you so much. If you like I can help you out by blocking it so you can’t even see it. That would be no trouble at all and if you like I can do it as a special favor to you just to save you any future angst over reading our poorly spelled, non-original content.
Sincerely,
Vic Holtreman
Owner/Editor-in-Chief: ScreenRant.com
Man, ive been coming to this site for about a year now, and its awesome! Who cares if theres typos and stuff like that? Im pretty sure you can guess what theyre trying to say.
Oh, and i love hearing their opinion or certain things.
Shoot me now!
Hollywood, stop taking dumps on my favorite movies!
Completely unoriginal, borderline racist, overacted piece of crap. I’m sorry to be so negative but it’s out of control.
P.S. – Martin Lawerence was NEVER funny and Chris Rock is only funny (REALLY funny) when doing stand up, all his movies are failures (box office and reviews wise).
Wtf were they thinking?
well, it says right here If your comment doesn’t show up immediately, it may have been flagged for moderation” and any other site checks all comments first before posting, so…i am not sure why it would have been “flagged for moderation” if it weren’t viewed first.
my big problem is these days some sites don’t “edit” for content. it seems that everyone is so in need of just getting something out or not reading what is printed. i mean, just for example, what if someone puts something threatening or above a rated r nature? there is no screening? and it seems, from what i noticed, that there is more than one person on here working as someone in an article printed on your site this week something about “vic being over the hill” or something close to that comment.
anyway, very mature (and i mean that, really and honestly) about you letting my post go up and then even responding it. you are better than trekmovie.com and now you have my respect, so, if you don’t ban me, than i will be back if you decide not to ban me. this is how things are done “old school”.
p.s. i just allowed a minimum of 2 typos on my post without editing. anyway, i do agree that there is too much crap going up as “remakes or reboots” or whatever. i am now watching “some came running” on my projector. where have all the “stories” gone?
@ realist
For someone that is so concerned with typos and grammar, you seem to neglect capitalizing the first word of your sentences. :p
@realist
That jibe at me in a post was just good-natured fun by one of my writers. Sorry if I was a bit hard on you, it’s been a rough couple of weeks for me physically recovering from surgery, and sometimes I tire of “armchair critics.”
Just so you know, typos and grammatical errors drive ME insane – I *hate* seeing them on the site and if I come across them I point them out ASAP to the writers/editors. You have to keep in mind also that there are two types of editing: One is for the overall flow, intent and readability of an article, and the other is for grammatical and spelling errors. These are two very different types of things and the major first pass is on overall readability of an article due to sentence and paragraph structure.
We put out a lot of content every day and I think my guys do a great job overall. My goal here is to have magazine-level quality writing, albeit a bit more informal. We strive for it every day but don’t always make it, unfortunately. Some people (myself and you among them, apparently) can pick these mistakes out immediately. Unfortunately I don’t spend much time personally editing articles due to other things that keep me busy. Those errors tend to jump out at me like they’re highlighted and blinking on the page, and frankly I don’t understand how they can make it past a writer AND and editor – but I’ve come to accept the occasional minor mess up.
Believe me, I beat my guys up about it.
Best regards,
Vic
Wow, realist, please ligthen up man!
Just think of screenrant as you and your buds hanging out in the parking lot after the movie and discussing it. There’s nothing formal to those conversations anymore than what’s commented on on here.
I’ve been reading Vic’s site since day one and honestly it is the first site I visit everyday. Other movie sites are so convoluted and speculate on rumors and stuff I find boring. People tend to follow those with similar tastes. This is an opinion site, and the opinions here do reflect a lot more people than those who post on here!
realist, if you dislike the trend of “remakes and reboots” and want “real stories” welcome to the club! We all feel the same way here! Kick up your feet, relax, and give it another chance…
Beware my own bad grammar and punctuation comma splices.
I’m loving Screenrant. I check it everyday for new articles. You guys talk about the movies and news that I care about and I feel lucky to have found the site. I love the opinions and at times joking in the articles and typos don’t stop me from reading on.
And about the movie…ridiculous. Martin Lawrence is never funny. And to remake it after only 2 years? That’s just crazy to me.
I have to chime in and say that I think Screenrant is doing a great job. I find the posts here to be more thoughtful and well written than most other websites. Sure the breaking news and wild rumors are over at Ain’t It Cool, but interesting insights about that news is over here. Keep up the good work Screenrant!
Regarding the article… I was offended by the idea of this remake until I saw the trailer. I thought it was racist to remake a movie and just switch the white characters for black ones. Now I can see that it’s not about race, it’s about switching the relatively unknown British actors for very famous American ones. This movie is obviously just a money grab. Unfortunately, I have a feeling it will succeed wildly.
So to sum up: greedy filmmakers? Ok. Racist filmmakers? Not ok.
I’ll chime in on Screen Rant here too I guess
I check it every single day. Aint it Cool is…”cool”…but I can go a few days without check it. Not so with Screen Rant.
We have a lot of different discussions here, a little bit of petty arguments but when you step away and a look at it, this website is pretty damn great.
Yeah, Screenrant rules. Realist, go eat a banana.
As much as I like Marsden, he will never accomplish what Alan Tudyk did in the original. One of the funniest characters I’ve seen in recent years.
Martin Lawrence “reaction” to Chris Rock showing him the picture (in the trailer) made me a little sick. Some of the worst, most “counterfeit” acting I’ve seen in a long time.
Hmmm, the original is English. I get remakes where the language is diffrent, cause american dont want subtiltes, but this is english -British even. By switching to a black cast and keeping the film the same, It seems like they are saying- black people won`t watch british films. would they also like to remake four weddings and a funeral with asian actors?
me being british and loving the original, i am very disapointed that hollywood thinks they have to re-make it to appeal to an american audience. it shows how narrow minded and ignorant they think the american people are. (maybe they are i dont know). but i would advise anyone to watch the original its a brilliant film, definatly does not need a re-make.
they done the same thing with the comedy series the office. felt they couldnt air the british version so they had to make an american version instead… i dont get it. lol
The original movie is 2 YEARS OLD.
I mean are we going to start seeing remakes of films lie In Bruges, or other British comedies that came out five minutes ago?
Thanks for the kind words about the site, gang.
Vic
Most definitely! Cant wait yo!
just read the comments cussin the site, ive never understood this… if you do not like the site dont visit. keep your opinion to yourself because obviously the site is doing something right to have a large following, nobdoy wants to hear it here.
keep up the good work screenrant
Ok. I have never seen the British version and maybe I will before this comes out. But to me it looks hilarious..I see nothing wrong with the all black cast…I get really angry when people say negative things about movies they haven’t seen yet. Black people go see all white movies all the time and they say some pretty racist stuff. i.e. couples retrat which was insanely racist to me… but its a movie and funny is fummy whether its black people or white people.
The British version is a hoot. Why remake? Hollywood is out of control.
I saw this trailer I thought it was pretty funny. I, like many other people, have not seen the original Death at a funeral. This film will bring in a new audience and probably get more people to check out the original. love the cast they’re funny people!
I have seen the original and it is great! One of the best comedies of this decade I would say…sure beats out Superbad.
Now as for this remake, I say give it a chance. The thing with trailers is that they do their job in deceiving you.
Who knows, this might actually be on par with the original and it seems that Chris Rock gives a more grounded subtle performance here.
The more I see Zoe, the more I see her really coming into her own as an actress. And her ass is def’ post grad.
Dany Glover, WHAAATTT!!!
“I’m getting too old for this death ish.”
I’m agreeing with Xigbar and Red Skull. I’m going to go puke now! What’s up with Dinklage selling out like that?