Death at a Funeral

Director Frank Oz, maker of such comedies as What About Bob? and Little Shop of Horrors, switches locales to England for this sometimes amusing but mostly dull vehicle. A family gathers for a patriarch’s funeral, and madness ensues. Somebody accidentally drops acid, someone else tries to blackmail the deceased’s sons, while another literally gets shat upon. The movie has its share of laughs, but the situations feel both recycled and ugly. Amusing performances from the likes of Peter Dinklage and Alan Tudyk can’t save the picture from being stale. There’s also a homophobic tone to some of the humor, and that certainly doesn’t help matters much. You will find many worse movies at the cinemas this year, but that doesn’t make this one good. In the end, it feels like 10 other movies condensed into an unoriginal 90 minutes.