The Funeral

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Average Customer Rating:	3.5
Release Date:	2005-08-09
Publisher:	Platinum Disc
Actors:	Benicio Del Toro; Chris Penn; Isabella Rossellini; Annabella Sciorra; John Ventimiglia
Aspect ratio:	1.33:1
Audience rating:	R (Restricted)
Format:	Color; DVD; NTSC
Language:	Original Language: English;
Weight:	0.2 pounds

Product Categories

Del Toro, Benicio; Gallo, Vincent; Hipp, Paul; Hoyt, John; Mol, Gretchen; Penn, Chris; Rossellini, Isabella; Sciorra, Annabella; Walken, Christopher; Ferrara, Abel; Drama; ( F ); Movies & TV on DVD and Blu-ray Disc Trade-In; DVD; R; US & CA DVDs: Region 1; 1990 - 1999; English; DVD

Product description

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 2-FEB-2007
Media Type: DVD

In this period family drama set in the Depression-era world of organized crime, director Abel Ferrara (King of New York, Bad Lieutenant) weaves a dark and impressive morality tale of revenge and family loyalty. Christopher Walken plays Ray Tempio, a low-level mobster who with his unstable younger brother Chez (played by Chris Penn) plots revenge for a rival mob's assassination of their younger brother. As they contend with their families--Ray's wife, Jeanette (Annabella Sciorra), who pleads with Ray to forego avenging his brother's death, and Clara (Isabella Rossellini), who has to cope with the unraveling and increasingly paranoid Chez--the struggle between family loyalty and the insatiable drive of revenge leads to tragic consequences. This is a raw, stark, and affecting film with fine ensemble acting and powerful direction from one of the independent film world's most original voices. --Robert Lane

Customer reviews

« wildly entertaining »

most entertaining piece of garbage i've seen in a long time. chris penn's shockingly bad performance is a showstopper. his solo singing bit was so painfully unnatural and forced that you feel embarrassed for the man. however, nothing tops the scene when he sees vincent gallo in the coffin and starts screaming. this had my friends and i in tears -- we rewound it over and over. this film was so hilarious we watched it two nights in a row. how could a director who, in one fell swoop, leapt to the front ranks of independent filmmakers with the most notorious film of the 90s, Bad Lieutenant, turn around and make this trash? in an interview, vincent gallo claims that ferrara, who was addicted to crack during the making of the film, constantly tried to pickpocket him in his dressing room. he also claims that he was on so much crack that he was never even on set. this film is an instant classic. rent it for chris penn alone.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-08-06

« drama dvd »

This movie is different, definitely for fans of the actors who star in it. The dvd arrived fast, in perfect condition as promised. Satisfied overall :)

Rating: (4 out of 5) @ 2010-06-29

« A Masterpiece »

This movie is a "Abel Ferrara" masterpiece! The cast..Christopher Walken,Benicio Del Toro,Chris Penn,Isabella Rossellini,Annabella Sciorra,and Vincent Gallo are a magnificent crew! And what a theatrical performance! The acting in this movie is so great you think you were watching a true event. If anyone who is pursuing an acting career and would like a lesson,then watch this one.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2009-12-24

« The Funeral DVD »

The Funeral is a good movie, as I had seen it before; however, the DVD is of poor quality and therefore I didn't watch it. I wish Amazon would provide information on the DVD label, so we would know what company has produced the DVD.

Rating: (2 out of 5) @ 2009-01-07

« If you like all main actors, but you've never heard of the movie... »

There's a good chance you should pass on it. Let's just skip the part that nobody could seriously believe Isabella Rossellini and Chris Penn as a couple and get right down to the stuff that doesn't make sense in the movie.

Trying to combine guilt and revenge in a gangster movie is like trying to put garlic on a cannoli. You've got two great themes, but they rarely can be combined to make something tasty. Walken's Ray has plenty of things to feel guilty about, not least among them his failure to shape his little brother Johnny's character after the death of their father.

While the combination of brooding and vengeful thoughts works for the young Hamlet, we expect more from the supposedly mature Ray. Either he can reflect on his role in his brother's death, or he can pursue the killer with a focused vengeance. Here, though, he does neither. The only tension in his pursuit is whether he'll get the right guy. If this tension had been the central theme of the story, it could very well have been more interesting.

Roger Ebert in an overall positive review of the movie described the ending as disappointing. That's a bit of an understatement. It's more like preposterous and lazy. It's hard to say why without giving things away though.

While thought this movie was quite poor, in a nod to the many positive reviews, many by folks I trust, I will say that you know and share the tastes of reviewers who recommend this movie, then go for it. For me though, this was a muddled, dreary tale that never really established its point of view.

Rating: (1 out of 5) @ 2008-12-31

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List Price:	$9.95
Our Price:	$3.30 (Save $6.65)
Availability:	Usually ships in 1-2 business days