Hey all. Capone in Chicago here.

There's no denying that director Frank Oz has made some truly great comedies in his career. I particularly like it when he delves into the darker corners of human behavior for laughs. Films such as DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, WHAT ABOUT BOB?, and BOWFINGER are some prime examples. But he's also capable of making me laugh with his lighter fare, with such works as IN & OUT, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS and his Muppet movies.

After his particularly disastrous remake of THE STEPFORD WIVES a couple years ago, Oz now comes at us with something much stronger that plays to his strengths as a gifted comic director. Foregoing any big name actors and trading in his familiar American setting for the quaint English countryside, DEATH AT A FUNERAL is a swirling farce that hits just a little more often than it misses with its entangled multiple storylines, fairly large cast and an army of pompous British aristocrats trying ever so hard to keep a stiff upper lip while the world around them literally falls to pieces.

You will find a few familiar faces in DEATH AT A FUNERAL, especially if your frequent smaller British fare, and a few American faces do make their way into the mix. Alan Tudyk (SEREINTY, KNOCKED UP and the upcoming 3:10 TO YUMA) is quite good as the American fiancé of Martha (Daisy Donovan from MILLIONS). He is nervous about making a good first impression on his future in-laws, a plan that is shot to hell when he accidentally takes a designer drug that for some reason makes him want to be naked and on the roof of the manor house where the titular funeral is taking place. Impressing me even more is Peter Dinklage, the gay lover of the dead man who has photos to prove it and believes he is due some sort of compensation for time served and to keep his mouth shut about the affair. The dead man's sons (played by Matthew McFadyen and Rupert Graves) are at odds about how to handle any number of troubles that crop up during the funeral.

Oz manages his controlled chaos with mixed results. Certainly, these are all fantastic actors who have no trouble selling the mayhem, but Dean Craig's script doesn't give all of his actors the proper outlet for their talents. I'm I huge Ewen Bremner fan, for example, but his character is reduced to begging a woman who wants nothing to do with him. Pathetic is rarely funny. But going back to the Marx Brothers (and trust me, I'm not comparing anything about this film to those of the Marx Brothers), I've always had a soft spot for comedies that portrayed the filthy rich as buffoons and just as incapable of making a sound decision as the rest of us. DEATH AT A FUNERAL isn't particularly sophisticated or refined (unlike its setting), but this talented bunch of actors sell the hell out of the material. In a summer filled with comedies brimming with topical humor and modern references, it was refreshing to see a film that strove to be timeless with its humor. The film is set in the present day, but it could have easily be transported to 50 years ago and been just as fun. There are barrels of laughs here, as well as a lot of heart and decadence.

Capone