Death at a Funeral

The humor manages to be simultaneously sophisticated, supremely silly and very dark.

This combination of tightly controlled farce and gross-out comedy works unexpectedly well, until the filmmakers lose their nerve at last and settle for cozy homilies. Still, four-fifths of a rarity is about twice as much as studios deliver nowadays.

It has the requisite amount of knockabout silliness.

Shows us how funny farce can be -- even with the hokiest of premises -- in the hands of the British.

A comedy that's refreshing in its courage to embrace tradition and just have fun.

By the end of Death at a Funeral's effortful farce about busted British propriety, you may feel that peculiar facial ache that comes from wishing to laugh with no really satisfying release.

Death at a Funeral never even approaches the best of Oz's oeuvre. It's his first movie that begs for the laugh track; they'll love it on BBC America.

very good comedy . the focus is on the actors james marsden ( Oscar) , martin lawrence ( ryan ) , tracy morgan ( norman ) and Danny Glover ( rusell uncle ) who made me laugh a lot

Definitely one of those comedies you need to let breathe in order for it to have its full effects. From the get-go, you're presented with a series of mini-narratives and characters that seemingly feature little to no opportunity to produce amusement or quality laughs. But again, you got to give this one time. By the midpoint of Frank Oz's "Death At A Funeral," I was most assuredly hooked, as the events that unfolded from that point on were far better than the plodding and pedestrian beats laid out by the film's first half. The film's second half is everything I expected the entirety of the movie to be; dark, twisted, hilarious, and memorable. Yes, it's still not particularly nice-looking in its execution, but the jokes were - finally - there. A nice little exercise in how patience can ultimately reward the audience.

Despite swindling in its title – naming the film Death at a Funeral without anyone actually dying – Frank Oz’s black humour comedy is in fact quite an honest film, fusing realistic funereal incidents to a considerably less realistic whole and letting the audience experience it through the eyes of not all too clever, successful or likeable Joe Publics. However, Dean Craig’s script will not be the one winning the prize for the wittiest, most intelligent or most amusing script of the century. Or of the year. Or of the opening weekend. Yet the British writer demonstrates flair in creating just slightly exaggerated characters that feel exactly like someone you’ve met yourself at some time. A top-tier ensemble cast is assisting him, especially uproarious with the likes of Alan Tudyk and Peter Dinklage, the duo primarily responsible for the burial going awry. But as other flaws, such as the archetypal comedy dialogue, the clichéd ending, and the unneeded scatological “humour” remain unresolved, the acting can’t elevate Death at a Funeral to any more than average. With good characters and slapstick gags, there is some fun to be had, but you’ll need more if you aspire to shape a good film. Death at a Funeral opts against that and therefore doesn’t furnish more than the occasional laugh.

If the film is so close to the original as to also be pretty much disposable once its over for ****, at least it as well serves up a healthy amount of laughs during its very brief and brisk run time.

If people tripping on drugs or poop jokes are your idea of sophisticated humour, this might be up your alley. If you can take some lowbrow along with the high and enjoy it all... you're probably well beyond the demographic this was written for and will find it a tedious wait for the end credits. I give it a few points because it wasn't completely impenetrable and incoherent like a few rare movies. It was very coherent and easy to follow - it just wasn't funny.