Death at a Funeral review

The movie, which is a remake of the 2006 British comedy about a family gathering that spirals out of control from one disaster to the next, has an all-star cast that is sure to attract movie-goers at the box office.
Directed by Neil LaBute, the new version features class act comedians – Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan and Kevin Hart. The original backdrop for “Death at a Funeral” was a rural village, with the modern-day adaptation set in middle-class black L.A, making it a smooth African-American revamp.
The story line is about a family uniting to mourn the loss of their father while paying their condolences at the funeral. The day gets off to a bad start when the mortician delivers the wrong body in the right casket – a minor hiccup compared to what follows.

Aaron (Chris Rock) plays the eldest son of the recently deceased patriarch and a frustrated writer who’s married to Michelle (Regina Hall). The extended relatives who arrive at the family home for the viewing are: Aaron’s younger brother Ryan (Martin Lawrence), a successful trash novelist; Cousin Elaine (Zoe Saldana) and her fiancé Oscar (James Marsden); cranky Uncle Russell (Danny Glover); family friends Norman (Tracy Morgan) and Derek (Luke Wilson).
A vial of pharmaceutical-grade hallucinogens mislabeled “Valium” and a grim little man with a secret regarding the deceased send things into overdrive. The latter is played by Peter Dinklage, who reprised his role from the original film.
Despite mixed reviews from critics, “Death at a Funeral” is sure to get a few gut-busting laughs from the crowd. “Death at a Funeral has that pleasant, bumptious vibe, even when the performances don’t hit their marks,” says Boston Globe writer Ty Burr.
It may not be everything it’s cracked up to be, but overall it sounds worth the $10 and tub of popcorn.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Review

While at the Springwood Diner with his girlfriend, Kris Fowles (Katie Cassidy), Dean Russell (Kellan Lutz) falls asleep at the table and meets a man covered in burn scars, wearing a red and green sweater and a clawed glove on his hand. The burned man cuts Dean's throat in the dream, but in reality it appears that Dean is cutting his own throat as friend and waitress Nancy Holbrook (Rooney Mara) looks on with Kris. At Dean's funeral, Kris sees a photograph of her and Dean as children, but cannot recall ever knowing Dean before high school. Kris begins to dream about the burned man herself and refuses to go to sleep for fear that she will die in her dreams. Jesse Braun (Thomas Dekker), Kris's ex-boyfriend, shows up at her house to keep her company while she sleeps, but Kris meets the burned man in her dreams and is murdered. Covered in blood, Jesse runs to Nancy's house to try to explain what happened and he learns that Nancy has been having dreams about the same man; that man's name is Freddy (Jackie Earle Haley).

Jesse is apprehended by the police under suspicion of murdering Kris, and is killed by Freddy when he falls asleep in his jail cell. With her friends dying, Nancy begins to question what everyone's connection is to each other, given that none of them can remember each other before their teenage years. Eventually, Nancy and her friend Quentin Smith (Kyle Gallner) discover that all of them, including more children, attended the same preschool together. Nancy's mother Gwen (Connie Britton) reluctantly tells Nancy and Quentin that there was a gardener at the preschool, Fred Krueger, who hurt Nancy and the rest of the kids. Gwen explains that Nancy was his favorite, and came home one day telling her mom about Freddy's "magic cave" and the things that happened down there. Gwen claims Krueger skipped town before he was arrested. Nancy does not believe her and attempts to track down the remaining kids from the school. Nancy eventually discovers that all of the other kids have been killed, most of them in their sleep. Meanwhile, Quentin tries to accept that everything is nothing more than repressed memories, but he falls asleep during swim practice and witnesses what really happened to Krueger. Quentin sees everyone's parents hunt down Krueger, and then burn him alive. Quentin and Nancy confront Quentin's father, Alan Smith (Clancy Brown), about the reality they murdered Krueger with no actual evidence that he had committed any crime. Nancy and Quentin, who both begin sporadically dreaming while they are awake as a result of insomnia, decide to go to the preschool and learn what they can about Krueger.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

On the way, Nancy falls asleep and is attacked by Freddy, but when Quentin wakes her up they discover she has pulled a piece of Freddy's sweater out of the dreamworld and into reality. Quentin takes Nancy to the hospital for cuts on her arm; there, he steals some adrenaline and a syringe to help them stay awake. Nancy and Quentin leave the hospital and eventually make it to the preschool. Quentin uncovers Krueger's "magic cave" and the evidence that proves Krueger was physically and sexually abusing all of the children. Nancy decides the only way to end this is to pull Krueger out of their dreams and kill him in reality. Quentin tries to stay awake long enough to pull Nancy out of her dream when she has Freddy, but he falls asleep and is attacked. Krueger then goes after Nancy, and explains that he intentionally left her for last so she would stay awake long enough that when she finally fell asleep, she would no longer be able to wake back up. While Nancy struggles with Freddy, Quentin wakes and uses the adrenaline to bring Nancy up and pull Freddy into reality. With Krueger distracted by Quentin, Nancy uses a broken paper cutter blade to cut Freddy's gloved hand off, and then slice his throat. Afterward, Nancy torches the secret room, with Krueger's body left inside, while she and Quentin leave. Nancy and her mother return home from the hospital, with Nancy being told she should get some sleep. Krueger suddenly appears in a mirror's reflection and kills Nancy's mother before pulling her body through the mirror while Nancy screams.