This movie is a shameless and unfunny “black” version ripoff of the 2007 British movie of the same name. Nothing in this movie even remotely approaches the humor of the 2007 original version. What makes this movie even more pathetic is how it even botches up those scenes that in the 2007 movie were hilarious. After watching the 2007 movie one left the theater with a smile; after watching this movie one leaves hoping that their funeral won’t be as disastrous as the one in the movie. The cast featured some really good comic actors, but in this movie they are not funny. The acting was poor, Martin Lawrence and Chris Rock were unfunny, in fact, Mr. Rock was actually subdued, the dialog was flat, the story, as already indicated, entirely unoriginal, and the plot nonexistent. And as for Danny Glover, this movie has to be the low point of his acting career. The movie attempts to be goofy but winds up being contrived. For Hollywood to have re-made this movie so soon after the original suggests that there is a dearth of original material. What’s next on the agenda? A remake of Brokeback Mountain, the “black” version? Or why not the “black” version of “Caddyshack” or “Gladiator”? Ugh! If Hollywood wants to do a “black” version of a movie, do it right or don’t do it at all.
But the worst element of this movie is the story’s utter lack of plausibility. In the original British version, the story works; in this ripoff version, the story collapses. The characters, the setting, the racial factor, does not support what the audience is asked to believe about the deceased. As this movie proves, what may be funny in a movie about a British family may not necessarily be funny in a movie about a black family set in Los Angeles, even if the story is the same.
