So having expressed an interested in seeing the, currently being heavily promoted movie, “Death At a Funeral”, a friend points out something I did not know. It’s actually a remake of an earlier British film.
So we scare up a copy. I assumed it was a much earlier film. I was expecting an old, perhaps black and white, silly British comedy. I was wrong. It is actually not more than a few years old. And it was really, really good, I quite enjoyed it.
In case you are unaware there is a ‘little person’ in it.
The more I see the promos for the latest version the more it makes me cringe a little, and I begin to think seeing the original is going to end up ruining the American version for me. Haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t say for sure, just an impression. The US version seems more over the top and cartoonish, from what I’ve seen. Whereas the British version was somewhat more subtle in many ways.
I caught another promo yesterday and was shocked to discover they’ve used the same ‘little person’ for both films.
His name is **Peter Dinklage **and he is an accomplished actor who did a great job in the first one…I think re-including him is meant to be part of the Funny…
An Penelope Cruz was in both “Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes)” and its Hollywood remake “Vanilla Sky”. Sometimes they just like a particular element from an original. It’s uncommon but not unheard of, and Dinklage was available, so why not?
The original was good, but I wouldn’t call it understated or subtle. Tudyk’s performance alone makes it pretty campy. That said, I liked it a fair bit, and I enjoy Dinklage pretty consistently, so I am considering seeing the remake, even if it does include Martin Lawrence.
I have the original in my Netflix queue although I don’t remember what prompted me to put it there (possibly a recommendation from someone here), and when I started seeing ads for the remake I thought my sanity was slipping.
This isn’t all that unusual. Sean Connery played James Bond in both Thunderball and never Say Never Again. Clark Gable played the same part in red Dust and Mogambo. The same basic cast appeared in three different-language versions of l’Atlantide
I know that both terms are considered offensive (though honestly I think little people sounds most offensive of all and it’s preferred), but I think Dinklage is technically a dwarf rather than a midget. Whatever he is, he’s a good actor and actually sorta kinda handsome.
As amazed as I was that anyone would remake a film that is A) in English already, and B) less than 3 years old, my biggest surprise was seeing the most recent trailer for the new version of the film. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, I’ll put this in a spoiler box, but the trailer actually flat-out explains that Peter Dinklage’s character…
was having an affair with the now-deceased father of Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence, who’s funeral the film is based around.
Seriously? How could they blow that in the trailer? Kind of a big plot point that’s supposed to be a secret.
Heck, Robert Llewellyn played Kryten the android in the original (British) Red Dwarf and the agonizing but mercifully short-lived American attempt at a remake.
That could be it; I watched Underdog solely because Peter Dinklage was in it, so that would have been reason enough for me to add Death at a Funeral to my Netflix queue.
