New on DVD: Death at a Funeral

It takes a death to bring some families together. It took a funeral to rip this one apart.

Beloved father, husband and uncle Edward Barnes has died. He wanted his memorial service to be held at home, so his eldest son, Aaron; his daughter-in-law, Michelle; and his widow, Cynthia, make that happen. 

It just doesn't happen easily. In fact, almost everything that could go wrong does. 

The wrong corpse is delivered. Once the right body arrives, Cousin Elaine's current boyfriend, Oscar, unknowingly takes a hallucinogenic drug and decides to "free" it from its confines. Despite her grief, Cynthia continues to nag Aaron and Michelle to have a baby. And Aaron's rivalry with his successful novelist brother, Ryan, cranks back up into high gear. Cantankerous Uncle Russell, meanwhile, isn't in a bad mood--that's just his normal personality. 

But as crazy as all that is--and believe me, some of it's impossibly madcap--most awkward

is the fact that Edward's clandestine gay lover, Frank, shows up demanding blackmail money. Without it, he'll show Cynthia photos of some very compromising positions.

At first Ryan and Aaron consider paying Frank off, but they opt for binding and gagging him instead. This bad decision leads to several others, naturally. And though no one but Edward ends up dead, based on the cast's bungled efforts to conceal secrets and clean up messes, it's remarkable that no coroners or cops, Keystone or otherwise, appear in Death at a Funeral.

A resurrection of the 2007 British movie of the same name, Death at a Funeral is one of actor/producer Chris Rock's latest and seemingly favorite projects. In an interview with CanMag he said of this ensemble film, "I think we made an American family comedy. Despite the R [rating], I think this is a movie you can see with your whole family. This is a movie for absolutely everybody. That's what I think."

OK. Let's take Mr. Rock at his word for a moment. That would mean this film would be a perfect way to teach kids these six awesome lessons:

1) Using hallucinogenic drugs is fine--and even a pharmacology student say so! Besides this, it's no problem to share prescription medication that's not yours, even if you find it on the ground. And if taking one pill is good, taking four or five is better!

2) Knocking folks out and tying them up can get you out of pretty much any kind of jam. And if the guy has it coming to him anyway, well, so much the better.

3) If you think somebody is dead, the best thing to do is hide the body behind a couch. That'll solve your problems and prevent legal interference. Your family will be none the wiser.

4) It's cool to use foul language. The f-word is particularly first-rate.

5) Joking about poop--and watching someone defecate on somebody else's hand--is good clean fun. 

6) If you get naked and crawl out on a roof, you can make people laugh, just like Oscar does.

Should I go on? I didn't think so. Chris, if my family had watched Death at a Funeral together when I was a child, it would have been only because my parents were tied up and unconscious, just like Frank.