From All Movie Guide: The marketing strategy for Death at a Funeral was pretty transparent: Gather together a bunch of Brits, test their sense of propriety through a handful of slapstick set pieces, and throw the word Funeral in the title, ideally calling to mind a certain breakout British hit starring Hugh Grant. But without the weddings to offset this trip to the funeral parlor, it's all just a bunch of broad gallows humor that's depressing and mean-spirited. The failure in tone may have something to do with the fact that American Frank Oz is at the helm; one senses that a Brit might have pulled back on the reins a bit. (Though Oz did live in England until he was five). Instead, Death at a Funeral charges over the top, so eager to get its jokes flying that it spends precious little time establishing the characters and the obstacles that might make us care about them. In this busy ensemble, the audience knows which character is serving which plot function primarily because each is an obvious retread of a c...

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