First, the body in the casket is an Asian man, and the family are an enormous African-American clan. Once they fix the little problem of having the wrong body delivered to their house, they still have to contend with the lifelong feud between brothers played by Martin Lawrence and Chris Rock, as well as the nasty attitude Rock’s mom gives Rock’s wife for not producing a grandchild fast enough.

Add in two Caucasian beaus fighting for the attention of Rock’s cousin (Zoe Saldana) – one (Luke Wilson) who’s a straight-arrow beloved by her father (Ron Glass) and the other an irresponsible goofball rendered helpless for the event by an accidental dose of psychedelic drugs (James Marsden, in a stunningly funny performance that should make him the next Jim Carrey).

Mix in Danny Glover in a hilarious against-type performance as a viciously cantankerous uncle who’s constantly abusing family friend Tracy Morgan between moments of elderly befuddlement, and Peter Dinklage as a mysterious, vertically-challenged man who has a shocking secret about the deceased father, and you still don’t have half the wickedly funny and inventive plotlines that make up the script by Dean Craig, who adapted “Death” from his own screenplay for the 2007 British art-house hit of the same name.

While the original “Death” was directed by American farce master Frank Oz (“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”), the new film is directed by Neil Labute (“In the Company of Men,” “Lakeview Terrace”) – a filmmaker and stage-play wizard whose prior works mined the darkest depths of the human soul. He might seem like an odd choice for directing a comedy, but the core action of “Death” takes place amid the many rooms of a large house, creating a stagebound effect that Labute mines well for the frequent door-opening and slamming interruptions that are key to this kind of farce.

Labute’s rich background helps keeps the fast-paced events from spinning out of control while also grounding the performances just enough that everybody in the cast gets moments to shine without feeling shoehorned into the mix. Rock and Morgan have long-term ensemble experience from their respective terms on “Saturday Night Live,” but Lawrence also proves he learned to control his usual showboating while part of the winning ensemble smash hit “Wild Hogs” in 2007.

For those wondering if the notoriously foul-mouthed duo of Rock and Lawrence turn “Funeral” into a potty-mouthed parade of F-bombs, the surprise answer is that the film is actually pretty mild for an R. Labute wanted to keep the film from devolving into extreme raunchiness but also realized that if the cast were bound to producing a PG13 result, their frequent improvisations would suffer as a result.

All in all, “Funeral” is a welcome surprise, serving as the first film to truly show Chris Rock can be as funny on film as he is on the standup stage. While the film may be marketed as the tale of “one sad family,” this is another in a string of solid spring comedies that will ensure audiences will be laughing heartily throughout.

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers: Republican Senators, John McCain, President Obama, Soledad O’Brien, Hanes Underwear, Charlie Sheen, Martin Lawrence, Rapper Lil Wayne, and Kendra Wilkinson.

Director Spike Lee’s third film, “Do the Right Thing,” hasn’t aged a day since its 1989 release. The film’s misguided views on violence were wrong-headed the second it hit theaters. And the election of President Barack Obama surely puts some of the film’s victimization subtext in fresh perspective. But as sheer entertainment, “Thing” remains a blistering experience, the culmination of every one of Lee’s unique gifts as a filmmaker.

The film’s re-release on DVD June 30 reminds us Lee hasn’t come anywhere close to matching “Thing’s” raw power in the intervening years.

“Thing” stars Lee as Mookie, a disinterested pizza delivery man working on the hottest day of the summer in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn. Pizza shop owner Sal (Danny Aiello) is thoroughly old school, and his bickering sons (John Turturro and Richard Edson) are hardly paragons of virtue. But Sal doesn’t have hate in his heart for his customers, who are almost all black. His food has fed them for years, he says with pride.

But a local radical (Giancarlo Esposito) doesn’t like Sal’s shop because it features a gallery of Italian-Americans on the wall – and no African-Americans. The disgruntled customer isn’t the only one on edge. The sweltering heat has everyone in a foul mood. It’s the perfect catalyst for what follows.

Lee’s films routinely polarize audiences and critics alike, but often at the expense of narrative and character development. Here, every Lee element falls right in place.

Cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, a director in his own right (“Bulletproof,” “Surviving the Game”), burnishes the screen with shades of brick orange to evoke a melting pot bubbling over.

Scene after scene crackles with out-sized characters, often anchored by terrific actors (Ossie Davis, Samuel L. Jackson among them). The film helped introduce Rosie Perez, Jackson and Martin Lawrence to the movie going public.

There’s not a wasted frame in the film. Every sequence has a purpose and a pulse, and the debates it inspired 20 years ago are still raging in one form or another today.

“Do the Right Thing” slips in a few telegraphed punches, like a brick wall emblazoned with the message “Tawana told the truth,” a reference to the racially charged Tawana Brawley case of the era.

The DVD features the usual gaggle of extras, from commentary by Lee and a self-congratulatory reunion of the cast.

Lee’s racial politics typically rub conservative audiences the wrong way. But with “Do the Right Thing,” Lee proved he could make a film that rose above ideological battle lines.