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The most surprising thing about “Death at a Funeral” is that it’s not called “Tyler Perry Presents Death at a Funeral.”

Otherwise, the ensemble family farce squats awkwardly in cinematic purgatory figuratively, and then very nearly literally during a 10-minute slapstick bathroom scene involving Tracy Morgan and Danny Glover.

A remake of a movie by the same name released just three years ago, “Death at a Funeral” focuses on 40-something boring tax accountant Aaron (Chris Rock), who’s planning his father’s funeral at the family home he lives at with his judgmental mom (Loretta Devine) and wife Michelle (Regina Hall), whos going gah gah over the fact they can’t pump out a baby as her biological ticker hits 0.0.

Despite being the family rock and older son by nine months, as is often pointed out the superstar is brother Ryan (Martin Lawrence), a fast talker, ladies man and trash novel scribe. The balancing act would seem tough enough for Aaron, who’s also sweatin’ the eulogy and dealing with a parade of eccentric relatives. But toss in a blackmail and a few bad hallucinogenic trips, and it makes an Irish wake look like a Duggar family birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.

“Death at a Funeral” has funny people; other than the names already mentioned, stars include Luke Wilson, supporting stalwart Keith David and the diminutive Peter Dinklage. It also has funny lines, most of which are delivered by Tracy Morgan, who plays family gadfly Norman with his usual “30 Rock” stylings. But even though the script and the stars are ripe for pants-wetting, no one ever springs the trap for laughs. The first hour of the movie has an oddly wooden feel, like the players memorized their lines all by their lonesome on an island, then got together and shot the flick in one take. But in the third act when the sh*t hits the fan, face and mirror the cast and material gel, and mild hilarity ensues.

Death at a Funeral is one of those movies that rightfully or not gets punished for not living up to its potential, strangely paralleling the career of Chris Rock himself. But if you go to the funeral with modest expectations and enough patience to allow rigor mortis to set in your funny bone before it’s finally brought back to life, youll be rewarded with the big screen equivalent of those bacon-wrapped scallops.

“Death at a Funeral,” rated R and with a running time of 90 minutes, is now playing nationwide.

The movie gets two out of four stars.