Death at a Funeral—MGM

Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 2.5/5
Extras: 2/5

As the mourners and guests at a British country manor struggle valiantly to "keep a stiff upper lip,"" a dignified ceremony devolves into a hilarious, no-holds-barred debacle of misplaced cadavers, indecent exposure, and shocking family secrets.

This is the third HD release of this film that I’ve owned. I had previously purchased both the HD DVD and Blu-ray releases from Germany as I’m a big fan of this film. Largely this transfer looks about the same as those with a respectable amount of detail and nice color balance. Fine object detail isn’t quite up to par with the best the format has to offer, but the natural photography holds up quite well. The soundtrack has some issues though with an obvious issue with the mics used during the filming. There is a noticeable noise floor whenever anyone talks that almost comes off like static. The rest of the mix is decent though with a nice sense of space and ambiance.

Extras are pretty sparse for this catalog release and include two feature commentaries and a gag reel.

When the recent remake with Chris Rock was released it had me scratching my head. The original is already a side-splitting comedy with a phenomenal cast and director and it’s even in English! The newer version isn’t bad but it doesn’t come close to the original and I’m glad to see MGM release it to Blu-ray finally. This is definitely the one to pick up!!

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