Yeah, I actually did know about the British version.
I didn't mention it because I think it certainly takes away from this version. As a general rule, remakes (especially Hollywood versions of recent foreign films) suck compared to the original. As another general rule, British humor cracks my poop up.
However, despite being a carbon copy of another film, this one looks pretty original in another sense. It's the first movie I know of to be a black comedy in both senses of the word. I'm a big fan of the "dark humor" variety. Not so much typically a fan of the Soul Plane variety.
Consisting of a mostly black ensemble cast, yet none of these actors typically appear in those types of movies that typically call for one.
It appears that the rule of this movie is black = British from the original, and white = American from the original, as far as the characters go (The guy that gets drugged, and the dwarf were both Americans in the original).
That's the only reason I can see that they went with the same dwarf. I would have thought with the way this was redone they would have gone with Tony Cox (the dude from Friday & Bad Santa).
