Festa col morto

Chris Rock seems miscast and director Neil LaBute never finds the proper tone in the multicultural comedy.

Director Neil LaBute's new comedy, "Death at a Funeral," which stars a posse of comics headed by Chris Rock, is the movie version of karaoke. It sings the same tune as the 2007 British underground hit, but it's a little, and at times a lot, off-key. Anyone who saw the original Frank Oz comedy of manners, with its Pandora's box of problems sharing coffin space with the deceased patriarch of a dysfunctional English family, should hold on to whatever fond memories they might have. For the rest, this new "Death" has its moments, but on the whole the production is, as "American Idol's" Randy Jackson might say, very pitchy and a couple of beats behind. »