A gut-bursting, piss-in-your pants, embarrassing, laugh-out loud comedy! High on my list on the funniest films to come from the UK and a Blu-ray worth owning!
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TITLE: Death at a Funeral
FILM RELEASE DATE: 2007
DURATION: 91 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (1:85:1), English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
COMPANY: Metro Goldwyn Mayer/Twentieth Century Fox
RATED: R (For Language and Drug Content)
RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2011
Directed by Frank Oz
Written by Dean Craig
Producer: Andreas Grosch, Sidney Kimmel, Laurence Malkin, Diana Phillips, Share Stallings
Executive Producer: Philip Elway, William Horberg, Bruce Toll
Co-Producer: John Kesselman, Alex Lewis, Bruce Webb
Music by Maurice Gold
Cinematography by Oliver Curtis
Edited by Beverley Mills
Casting by Gail Stevens
Production Design by Michael Howells
Art Direction by Lynne Huitson
Set Decoration by Judy Farr
Costume Design by Natalie War
Starring:
Matthew Macfayden as Daniel
Keeley Hawes as Jane
Andy Nyman as Howard
Ewen Brenner as Justin
Daisy Donovan as Martha
Alan Tudyk as Simon
Jane Asher as Sandra
Kris Marshall as Troy
Rupert Graves as Rovert
Peter Vaughan as Uncle Alfie
Thomas Wheatley as the Reverend
Peter Egan as Victor
Peter Dinklage as Peter
A dignified funeral ceremony erupts in uproarious chaos when a family is forced to come to terms with each other’s bad behavior, outrageous faults and hidden secrets.
A gut-bursting, piss-in-your pants, embarrassing, laugh-out loud comedy! High on my list on the funniest films to come from the UK and a Blu-ray worth owning!
In 2007, director Frank Oz and screenwriter Dean Craig were responsible for the critically acclaimed British black comedy film “Death at a Funeral”.
While many in America are probably more familiar with the 2009 Chris Rock/Neil LaBute version of the film, it is the original UK version that started it all.
Directed by Frank Oz (“The Stepford Wives”, “Bowfinger”, “What About Bob?”, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”) and written by Dean Craig (“Death at a Funeral” (2010), “Caffeine”, “Dirty Little Secrets”), the film which was budgeted around $9 million would gross $46 million worldwide and would receive positive reviews from critics worldwide.
“Death at a Funeral” takes place in England at a family home where aspiring writer Daniel (played by Matthew Macfadyen) and his wife Jane (played by Keeley Hawes) live with his parents and both have raised enough money to get their own home.
The film takes place on the day of Daniel’s father’s funeral and is preparing his eulogy speech and all the family and friends to arrive. But from the beginning of the day, things begin to go awry when the funeral home deliver the wrong body. As Daniel worries about his eulogy, he also worries about who is going to pay for the funeral and hopes his younger brother Robert (played by Rupert Graves), a well-known novelist who lives in New York City will come and pay for the funeral. But when Robert arrives, Daniel quickly learns that Robert used his money for a First Class airline ticket than contribute financially to the funeral and thus, Daniel would have to use his money (which he had saved in getting a home) for the funeral.
As family and friends begin to arrive at the funeral, we get to meet other characters.
Daniel’s cousin Martha (played by Daisy Donovan) is engaged to Simon (played by Alan Tudyk) who is nervous about the funeral because her father Victor is not so approving of the men she dates. As they go to pick up her younger brother Troy (played by Kris Marshall), Troy is working on a hallucinogenic drug (like acid) for his friend and he quickly puts it into a Valium bottle inside his apartment. With Simon being so nervous, Martha sees a bottle of the Valium and tells Simon to take a pill as it should calm his nerves.
And while the three drive to the funeral, they begin to realize that something is wrong with Simon. As he starts to act weird and thinks everything around him looks so pretty, Martha tells Troy that ever since she gave him the Valium that was at his home, he has started to act weird. Troy begins to worry and tells his sister that the pills are not Valium but a drug he concocted for his friend and now both must watch over Simon or else he may ruin the funeral.
Meanwhile, another relative named Howard (played by Andy Nyman) and his friend Justin (played by Ewen Bremner), who once had a one night stand with Martha, are headed to the funeral but must pick up the crotchety Uncle Alfie (played by Peter Vaughan). For Howard, picking up Uncle Alfie is going to be a challenge and because he worries so much, he is now fretting over a skin irritation on his wrist. And as expected, picking up Uncle Alfie is not going to be easy at all.
As all family are at the funeral and everyone awaits for it to begin, a dwarf named Peter (played by Peter Dinklage) wants to talk to Daniel privately. Peter tells Daniel that he is the former lover of his father and because he didn’t receive anything from the will, he feels that he is owed something. So, he wants to be paid a certain amount of money and he will leave. But if he doesn’t get paid, he has brought some smutty pictures with him and his father and will share it with everyone at the funeral.
So, as Daniel tries to deal with Peter’s blackmail during the funeral, to make things worse, Martha’s fiance, Simon is starting to act highly unusual at the funeral.
All Daniel wants is to respect his father and remember him… but with the day going so wild and crazy, will the funeral ever take place?
VIDEO:
“Death at a Funeral” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:85:1). Picture quality for the film is very good, colors are vibrant, black levels were nice and deep and there is good amount of detail, from the sweat on Howard’s face to the beautiful home where the family lives in, for the most part, the picture quality is very good and I detected no banding (I did see it on the special features but not during the film), artifacts or edge enhancement.
The 2010 version has a more colorful pallet and emphasis on detail on the more dirtier scenes (ie. poo scene) but still, the picture quality of this original 2007 film is still well-done and fans of the film will definitely want to upgrade from their original DVD version.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Death at a Funeral” is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish and French 5.1 Dolby Digital. “Death at a Funeral” is a dialogue-driven film that is mostly front and center channel driven. There really wasn’t anything that stood out, audio-wise especially for the surround channels. If anything, it’s all about the dialogue and the dialogue on the lossless soundtrack is crystal clear. I detected no hiss or any audio problems while watching the film.
Subtitles are presented in English, English SDH, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Death at a Funeral” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary with Director Frank Oz – In-depth audio commentary by Frank Oz who goes into everything from the scene, the casting of the talent and also interesting things utilized during the making of the film.
- Audio Commentary with Writer Dean Craig and Actors Alan Tudyk and Andy Nyman – A hilarious and fun commentary from Dean Craig, Alan Tudyk and Andy Nyman.
- Gag Reel – (7:46) Featuring the outtakes from “Death at a Funeral”
- Theatrical Trailer – (2:15) The theatrical trailer for “Death at a Funeral”.
“Death at a Funeral” is one of my favorite British comedy films of all time!
And considering there are a good number of comedies from Peter Sellers and Alec Guiness that are well-known, “Death at a Funeral” was possibly one of the few that made me feel that I was going to have tears in my eyes because I was laughing so much and so loud!
The fact is that many of us have experienced funerals and how tense they are. But when things go wrong, it’s like a trainwreck that you just can’t keep your eyes off of it. In this case, seeing this family having to go through crazy and embarrassing situations from the moment Daniel opens the casket to find someone that is not his father, you can’t help but laugh and know that you are in for a wild ride.
But its the ensemble of characters that were just so fun to watch! From the drugged out Simon (kudos to Alan Tudyk for playing the daring role and having to climb up the roof with no clothes on), you know when you see Simon show up onscreen, you know that nothing but trouble will be happening!
Andy Nyman was absolutely hilarious as the man who literally brings the comedy with him being all stressed out, angsty and sweaty and the scene when he gets poop all over him is just sick but so hilarious that I felt my gut was about to burst!
And then you have the appearance of Peter (the gay lover of Daniel’s father), played by Peter Dinklage, was a mysterious character and to see how he eventually comes to play for Daniel and family was rather interesting and hysterical! It’s important to note that Dinklage also appears in the 2010 version of the film.
Now I often get asked…which is the better version? The original UK version or the Chris Rock version and although I know that many people love the original (which I also do as well), by no means am I a hater of the 2010 version of the film.
One thing where film critic Roger Ebert hit it right square on the nail in his review was his comment, “British actors are rightly known for their skill, and there were some good ones in the 2007 version of the same Dean Craig screenplay. But playing proper upper-crust characters tends to restrain them. The family in “Death at Funeral” is obviously wealthy, but loose–more human. Their emotions are closer to the surface, and these actors work together like a stock company.”
I happen to agree. In the American version, with American audiences, people relate to characters like them and in this case, these are not upper-class characters. You have Aaron worrying about the financial situation of paying for the funeral (which many American families have to face) and each of these talents work quite well with each other and as Chris Rock has mentioned in one of the featurettes, it was important for him to hire a director that he could trust for the film and director Nick Labute did a good job in making a film for the American audience. And the fact that you had the original writer for the British film, Dean Craig, involved is a major plus.
But still, the original version had charm and plots that were not as forced as the 2010 version. In the 2010 version, the main protagonist’s wife wants to get pregnant so badly that she wants to have sex during the funeral, I just felt that was one change that I could have done without.   Also, Alan Tudyk’s Simon was absolutely hilarious! As mentioned, each time you saw him onscreen, you knew there would be trouble. The crossed eyes and slurred speech was absolutely hilarious!
And it just doesn’t stop as you expect nothing but trouble when you see Andy Nyman’s Howard. The always stressed out family friend is that person you want to ignore because he tends to babble too much about things that make no sense or things that may be a bit more on the disgusting side. Although I prefer Nyman’s Howard versus Tracy Morgan’s character in the 2010 version of the film, the newer version does a much better job in emphasizing the poop scene which was disgusting in the original but made even more disgusting in the newer version.
As for the Blu-ray release, “Death at a Funeral” has two wonderful commentaries for fans of the film. You also get a gag reel and theatrical trailer, so everything from the original DVD release is on this Blu-ray release. Picture quality and the lossless audio is an improvement over the DVD release and fans of the film will definitely want to upgrade!
Overall, “Death at a Funeral” is one of those films that you love for its embarrassing and crude humor but from the first time I saw this film, It was such a fun and entertaining experience, I felt that I was laughing out loud throughout the film and that’s a good thing.
A gut-bursting, pee-in-your pants, embarrassing, laugh-out loud comedy. If you are in the mood to laugh and love British comedies, the original “Death at a Funeral” is highly recommended!
