Death at a Funeral
Screen Gems | Release Date: April 16, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
13
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I laughed all the way through, in fact. This is the best comedy since "The Hangover," and although it's almost a scene-by-scene remake of a 2007 British movie with the same title, it's funnier than the original. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Reveling in mess and homegrown multiracial mayhem, Death at a Funeral finds a new lease on life. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Death at a Funeral does what a good comedy is supposed to do: generate laughter. The humor gradient is lopsided - the second half, which builds comedic momentum, is significantly funnier than the first half, which is mostly set-up. Still, any such unevenness aside, the overall impression is one of enjoyability. Read full review
70
SalonMatt Zoller Seitz
Death at a Funeral works and then some. The movie is labored, overly familiar and about 10 miles away from deep -- an elemental, sometimes excremental comedy about petty twits behaving badly. As totally unnecessary remakes go, it's one of the best. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Slight but agreeable picture. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
The new Funeral, directed by social commentator-director Neil LaBute ("Lakeview Terrace") doesn’t improve on the original, which wasn’t exactly a classic despite its classic structure. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The new version is completely unnecessary and sloppier than it should be. It’s also still funny, partly thanks to smart casting in a few key roles and partly because farce this ironclad cannot be denied. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Verdict? Mixed. Loved the slapstick, winced at the toilet humor, and mourned that the female performers were given so little to do. Funeral is funnier the second time around. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Gets by for many of the same reasons "Date Night" got by, all of them performance-related. Read full review
60
Time OutNick Schager
Proving that a comedy’s performers are sometimes more important than its jokes, this remake of Frank Oz’s dreary 2007 British farce of the same name livens up the proceedings by subbing in a comic African-American all-star cast. Read full review
55
NPRMark Jenkins
The original was a little sharper, with actual satirical swipes at modern British life. The remake replaces some of that material with lazy pop-culture gags, most of them specifically African-American. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
But nothing taps his own particular talents to unsettle audiences with truly edgy material. Funeral gets no more edgy than a potty joke and a corpse tumbling out of a coffin. This is nothing more than juvenile slapstick. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
The movie version of karaoke. It sings the same tune as the 2007 British underground hit, but it's a little, and at times a lot, off-key. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The only death at this funeral was that of a good movie. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Still, if for the most part Death at a Funeral is as tame as the tasteful parlor where most of its action takes place, it manages to explode one taboo, in casting mostly black actors in roles originally played by whites. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Think of Death at a Funeral as a comic quickie. As it presses buttons, a few laughs come out, but that’s all there is to it. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
It's because of a superior cast that this version of "Death at a Funeral" is the rare comedy remake that's funnier than the original, however slightly. Personally, though, I'm not sure it was worth the effort. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Middling gets downgraded to muddling. Of course, on such slippery slopes, reputations are made. Damned if the original isn’t looking like a comparative gem. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyMelissa Anderson
Rock's interventions can't compensate for excessive fealty to dumb gags involving watery poop and designer hallucinogens. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
You won't find many surprises in the equally funny U.S. remake from producer and star Chris Rock. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
You must really love a movie if you decide to remake it just three years after its release. But unless you also intend to improve upon the first attempt, what's the point? Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazinePete Hammond
Offers very little new for those who saw the original. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Rock acquits himself nicely as the responsible brother and resident straight man, but everyone else in the cast has apparently been advised to mug shamelessly and yell their lines as loudly as possible. Read full review
30
VarietyJustin Chang
This slavishly faithful update... fails to tap into anything culturally specific or uniquely funny in its Pasadena setting or its theoretically looser, livelier black cast. And because the characters are so flat, we couldn't care less about the blows to their sense of propriety. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
You can get away with almost anything in a farce except failing to be funny, and that's what kills Death at a Funeral. Read full review
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