MovieChat Forums > Death at a Funeral (2010) Discussion > It's not the all black cast that bothers...

It's not the all black cast that bothers me....

posted 14 years ago by white-hume
106 replies | jump to latest

Said it once I'll say it again. It's the way they changed the movie. They took a great movie that had nothing to do with race and had to put race crap in it! Why?
Remake a three year old movie? Lazy.
All black cast? Whatever.
Take the humor that made the original so great and dumb it down? Rediculous.
"She may be in twelth grade, but dat ass is in grad school. Um" *Shudder*
Look, I'm not exactly an "anti remake nazi". Taking an older movie and modernizing it, I am not opposed to as long as it's done well. Heck, "I Am Legend" was great and I'm actually starting to get excited about seeing the remake of my favorite movie, Clash of the Titans. (we'll have to see)
However, how annoyed would people be if, lets say next year they came out w/ a remake of The Dark Knight...only Uwe Boll gets to direct it, and they get the comedic writer from all those aweful "American Pie" sequals get involved? Oh yeah!! And Michael Bay gets to add all the action scenes!! And just for fun how about an all hispanic cast?
I ask again...WHY???

[–] JahWoo 14 years ago

lol...a hispanic batman and joker would kick ass....**blah blah blah**

after my initial outrage i thought about it and i agree..it's not that there's a black cast...it's a combination of all of the changes...i'm actually not even a huge fan of the original movie but this is just stupid and should be boycotted by everyone who thinks it's a horrible idea.

[–] white-hume 14 years ago

LOL....Liked the idea myself!!!

[–] punkboyeverett 14 years ago

I agree JahWoo, I wasn't a fan of the original, but this looks ten shades of terrible. and why in the heck would anybody remake a 3 year old flick?
I can assure you I won't be seeing this one.

______________________________________________________________
"I love humanity, it's people I can't stand." - Linus Van Pelt

[–] meldelicious 14 years ago

You know when I first saw the previews, it did not register that I had seen this moving in recent years (although in the back of mind was, haven't I heard this title before?). Then I saw the preview again last night, and the "white guy" on the roof was shown (looks like the same durn house)... bingo.

Death at Funeral was not a fabulous movie but it did tickle me and there were many funny parts. However, I don't think that remaking the movie with an all black cast and "Americanization" is going to make it better. It might give it a wider release, but that is about it.

I think you should at least allow a movie to get cold in the grave before you remake it.

You know the sound that Goofy makes when he falls? That's my quote.

[–] woodduck 14 years ago

Meldelicious--your signature cracks me up . . . . I LOVE that sound that Goofy makes when he falls; always tried to mimic it when I was a kid. hilarious.

[–] meldelicious 14 years ago

Mucho thanks! I have been using that sig since my days long ago on AOL and they asked for a quote for your profile. I have quite a nice Goofy collection, so it fits. Again, thanks!

You know the sound that Goofy makes when he falls? That's my quote.

[–] venusebony 14 years ago

The OP is contradicting himself or herself. Black funerals are different than white funerals. Everyone knows this! How can you have a funeral with a black cast and ignore African American culture? White culture and black culture is different just accept the fact we ARE DIFFERENT.

[–] SnapCrackledThePop 14 years ago

Have you seen the original? The scenes are EXACTLY the same in the original to the ones that have showed in the trailor of the remake. Nothing has changed at all except for adding the black family. Everything is the same, the guy on the roof naked, the old man crapping on the hand. EVERYTHING!

Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.-S.B.A

[–] buddydave_1 14 years ago

The OP contradicts himself with his screen-name.

He thought "I Am Legend" was a great movie? Seriously?

The ONLY reason he's p***ed is because they made the cast black.

"Remake a three-year old movie? Lazy."

Except NO ONE -- and I mean No. One. -- saw that three-year-old movie. And they had Frank Oz directing!

Why not use a black cast and give it another dimension? If the other movie wasn't about race, adding race to this one spins it in another direction rather than making it a pointless remake.

And addressing the homophobia of African-Americans in a humorous fashion makes it much needed and very timely.

I haven't seen the original, and I can't put the OP's devotion to the original in context, but it seems to me that he's simply p***ed that they're remaking a movie that he likes with a black cast because he's a ****ing racist. And I'm WHITE.

Whatever. The trailers look funny and the OP is a moron.

[–] chadsgirl824 14 years ago

I actually loved the original and so did many of my friends. To be perfectly honest I couldn't care less if it's a black cast, a white cast or any other cast; remaking a movie 3 years after the original is just stupid, especially when you're not even changing it up...every joke appears to be done the exact same way as the original with slight dialogue changes here and there. It doesn't matter if the original wasn't as widely received it's still ridiculous and I feel disrespectful to the original actors who barely just put their stamp on the roles. I actually would have loved this cast all together for a comedy that wasn't directly copying the original...and I know it makes no difference at all but for what it's worth I will never see this new remake...

[–] tody711 14 years ago

I am turning down a free pass to a preview screening. I detest the way Hollywood remakes other peoples movies. Death was a very funny Brit movie, and it does not need remaking. Peter D demeaned himself by being in this remake. Hollywood needs to get some original thoughts.

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[–] rebelchanel 14 years ago

I saw the old one...

When I saw the commercial for the all black one, I almost threw up.
I was like, what the actual *beep*.
This is the dumbest movie I've ever come across... no one should see it.

I'm just sad my fave actress, Zoe, got roped into this one.

Recent Film: The Time Traveler's Wife 7/10
Recent Theater Film: The Losers 10/10

[–] Spixe 14 years ago

uhh, I saw the old one. It's tons better than this worthless remake IMHO. BTW, the 2007 version has over 30,000 votes, while this 2010 version hasn't even reached 5,000. If anything, you should reverse your remark and make it "Except NO ONE -- and I mean No. One. -- saw this new 3 months old movie. And they have Neil LaBute (who?) directing!" That would have made more sense...

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[–] ClintJCL 14 years ago

I liked the remake better. I was quite turned off by "remake, but with black people". I was wrong.

-ClintJCL
http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/category/reviews/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl

[–] Candy_star 14 years ago

i am legend is a great movie.

btw, ive seen the original british "death at a funeral" more than once (so have the lot of my family/friends) & its a helluva lot better than this one....black/white aside.

i dont like the remake even half as much as the original for pretty much the same reasons the OP stated. also, there is way to much swearing in it. a few swears are ok...but not every 2nd word!

That this is thriller, thriller night. ~~RIP Michael Jackson

[–] joshgrrr 11 years ago

LOL you couldn't be more wrong. Hilarious.

"I haven't seen the original"

And yet you think it right to judge comments on movies, neither of which you had seen at the time? Good one.

Yeah "no one" saw it, because in your world, if you haven't seen it, no one has.
False grandeur and white guilt are blinding you from a terrible movie.

I hope you realized this after the three years that have passed.

I must be a moron for responding to a 3 year old post but well,
Can't hurt.

[–] nestafan2 14 years ago

lol...a hispanic batman and joker would kick ass....**blah blah blah**

Think so? Look up Cesar Romero. He's the original Joker.

Heaven will be underbooked.

[–] NutInAHut 13 years ago

lol...a hispanic batman and joker would kick ass....**blah blah blah**

And it did. Remember Cesar Romero? :)

[–] mlfm256 14 years ago

other from the black cast, what else is changed?
from what i saw in the trailer i thought it was basically the same story, only with more black humor.

[–] white-hume 14 years ago

Yeah, you are right. It is basically the same story, only w/ black humor. That is what killed it for me. It was the "dark humor" (no pun intended) that made the first one so great. I feel like they dumbed it down just to "Americanize" it. Oh well....

[–] anarresa 14 years ago

I thought they just used the title, perfectly resonable, it's not that unique. The original was clever and witty and silly in a terrific balance, and readily available in America! This is cheap, juvenile crap. How they got some decent actors to sign on is beyond me, how anyone respectable signs on for these ridiculous black comedies is beyond me. Shame on the writers for giving up the rights for this.

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[–] ClintJCL 14 years ago

How is this really different from the original? It's almost a scene-by-scene duplicate!

-ClintJCL
http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/category/reviews/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl

[–] iLUVdaDESERT 14 years ago

I'll solve your problems for you: watch it or don't.

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[–] white-hume 14 years ago

Look, everyone has that one movie that they absolutely love and would be pissed if it was done into a crappy remake and feel the need to vent. Honestly, I wouldn't read the boards on here if I didn't want to hear people bitching about a movie.

[–] aydreaw 14 years ago

If you look at the trailers back to back there's hardly any difference except for that line, the one about Jackie Chan and the bit where Martin Lawrence is upset that his dad's lover is black. Both trailers are pretty slapsticky with fairly absurd characters.

This one to me feels more "American" than "black" and as a black person who loves British comedy, I appreciate that.

The "why remake a 3-year-old movie" question is a good question. Did the 07 version not get much traction in the states.

I also appreciate making a movie with black people that's not all ghetto. These people have money, Chris Rock seems like a fairly quiet, together character, the oddities about the characters seemed tied to them just being strange, not to them being black.

But it is like they couldn't help themselves by squeezing in those few race-centric lines into the trailer. Hopefully those are the only ones in the film.

[–] thorerik10 14 years ago

You seem naively optimistic, and Chris Rock as a 'fairly quiet, together character'...that'll be the day.

[–] Chelios24 13 years ago

I don't see why so many people are upset about it having a mostly black cast. It's not like they were all type-cast to be ghetto. Their roles could have been played by someone from any gender or race.

[–] white-hume 14 years ago

"But it is like they couldn't help themselves by squeezing in those few race-centric lines into the trailer. Hopefully those are the only ones in the film."

I agree

[–] SnapCrackledThePop 14 years ago

I honestly only heard of the original because Matthew MacFayden was in or so I bought it. I don't even remember it marketing here, but you can buy it in the stores. If they had marketed the film here it probably would have done decent because it is hilarious. The remake it just sorta insulting.

Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.-S.B.A

[–] MovieMasterC 14 years ago

I'm not sure about marketing as far as advertisements are concerned, but the original was shown in movie theaters in the US. It only stayed for a couple of weeks though, so it was fairly short lived (like so many other foreign films).

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[–] zeldamike68 14 years ago

I completely agree with the TC. It's as though this movie is just being used as an example of how stupid American audiences are. Seriously...the original was fantastic! It really is ridiculous. I don't have anything against Chris Rock, but I hate Tracy Morgan and his speech impediment. I honestly hope this tanks. It just goes to show you how desperate Hollywood is to make a quick buck. I'm honestly disgusted by the fact that they're mooching off the work other people already did and never received credit for.

[–] ImOscarDotCom 14 years ago

Hollywood has absolutely zero need to make a quick buck because the movie industry is the only one that hasn't been completely f$%#ed over by the economic melt down. So there goes that theory.

Harsh reality check: There are a proud few Americans who love British humor and the original DAAF...maybe it's a TS Elliot or Sylvia Plath desire to be a Brit, but for a lot of Americans, that brand of humor is not their cup of vanilla latte. It doesn't mean they are stupid or the remake is being dumbed down, it's just trying to appeal to a much wider demographic. And if you think about it, the remake will most likely spark interest in the original...so, win-win. I know tons of people think americans are stupid, fat, lazy morons; and yes, many of them are, but what a lot of the world seems to forget is that there are 280 million of us and there are a decent amount of us who are svelte, intelligent, and use proper grammar and spelling; but I digress.

My largest point is, chelloooo, the movie hasn't even come out! judge a book by it's cover much?

it was always fugees and funyuns

[–] TheMasterMind201 14 years ago

dude...you are aware the entire cast of the english film was white, right? White is a race, therefore the original film is as much about race as this one is. Would it have bothered you if the cast of the american remake were all white as well?

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[–] TheMasterMind201 14 years ago

uh, yeah, it is, you *beep* retard. Look at the definition of "race" one more time. Oh, I see, your problem is with the words "white" and "black". Fine, caucasion and african, or whatever equally arbitrary labels you want to use.

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[–] teekay7 14 years ago

"Dude...you are aware the entire cast of the english film was white, right? White is a race, therefore the original film is as much about race as this one is. Would it have bothered you if the cast of the american remake were all white as well?"

No. Because in the "White" version nobody throws in racist "jokes". "That's Jackie Chan in there!" and Martin Lawrence complaining his Dad's lover wasn't black. Typical racism that Black people are allowed get away with at every turn.

[–] Screenwriter_Brandi 14 years ago

Yeah we're so lucky aren't we!

[–] white-hume 14 years ago

Yeah I'm aware that the original cast was entirely white, however it still did not have anything to do w/ race. Actually I don't recall a single racial joke in it, however I saw at least 2 in the remake trailer. Like I said, I don't have an issue w/ the cast, just the unnecessary remake and the crap added to it!

[–] scream4056 14 years ago

A Hispanic Batman...so would that make him Batmeng?

[–] white-hume 14 years ago

LOL!!