Over Her Dead Body (D+ or 1.5/4 stars)
'Over Her Dead Body' is a (so-called) romantic comedy written & directed by Jeff Lowell. When his fiancee is killed on their wedding day, Henry (Paul Rudd) agrees to consult a psychic named Ashley (Lake Bell). As most people are, he's reluctant to believe in her abilities. But he begins to fall for her, and she for him. This proves to be a BIG problem for his ex-fiancee, Kate (Eva Longoria Parker), who is harassing Ashley from beyond the grave (in ghost form). Angry at her untimely death, and jealous at what she's seeing, she's determined to prevent Henry from loving another. Baaad movie, and still, it could have been a lot worse.
The opening scene: Kate, all orange (assumedly from a high-voltage sun lamp) is at her wits end concerning her wedding day. She's unhappy about everything: the gardenias, the food, the angel ice sculpture that lacks its' wings, etc. Henry is pretty laid back about it all (to a fault). But they never get to say their vows because Kate is accidentally crushed by the very ice sculpture I spoke of before. In the ensuing months/year after her death, he still seems disconsolate (why, I don't know. She seemed like a royal you-know-what to me). It's here where Henry's psychic convinces him to get out and start dating again.
Well ... don't ya know that Henry's sister, Chloe (Lindsay Sloane), gives Ashley Kate's secret diary so that Ashley could recount personal details during her sessions with Henry. And don't ya know that Henry finds this out. And don't ya know that he and Ashley argue & end their verging romance. And don't ya know that Kate is in Hog Heaven at this reveal ... almost literally. But there's a twist towards the end of the film, of course. What, oh what will happen to Henry & Ashley? Come on, it's easy to assume that they'll make-up, Kate will have learned her lesson, blah blah. There are other subplots in this mess. i.e., Ashley's best gay friend, Dan (Jason Biggs) professes his 5 yr. long love for her and that he's ... not gay. Nothing can salvage this film's shoddy screenplay.
I hate conversational dialogue such as "Um, so, y--, yeah, um, alright, we ... haha, um, we could do that, su--, sure, that sounds great". And it's this type of dialogue that is littered throughout the movie; it made my head hurt after a while. As far as the acting goes, no one is great here. I'd go as far as saying that Kate's parrot displays the most onscreen charisma. Lake Bell is attractive in an odd sort of way. But she has NO chemistry with Paul Rudd (quite lifeless here), and you'd want the 2 lovebirds in a screwball comedy like this to have chemistry. In fact, Ashley and her gay boyfriend have more chemistry ... talk about backfire!
Eva Longoria Parker flounders between being nails-on-a-chalkboard annoying, and earnest. You know, 'OHDB' starts miserably, it gets somewhat better towards the end, but then the last minute or so lived up to my previous expectations of it sucking. There's very little romance, and very little comedy. And the characters do and say some stupid things. About 3 or 4 times I thought 'oh, that was an amusing line'; that's it. As I said, the film isn't truly awful. I liked some of Kate (Longoria's) revenge tactics on Ashley. There are some sweet moments here & there. But the movie fails because it lacks a lot of imagination.
The opening scene: Kate, all orange (assumedly from a high-voltage sun lamp) is at her wits end concerning her wedding day. She's unhappy about everything: the gardenias, the food, the angel ice sculpture that lacks its' wings, etc. Henry is pretty laid back about it all (to a fault). But they never get to say their vows because Kate is accidentally crushed by the very ice sculpture I spoke of before. In the ensuing months/year after her death, he still seems disconsolate (why, I don't know. She seemed like a royal you-know-what to me). It's here where Henry's psychic convinces him to get out and start dating again.
Well ... don't ya know that Henry's sister, Chloe (Lindsay Sloane), gives Ashley Kate's secret diary so that Ashley could recount personal details during her sessions with Henry. And don't ya know that Henry finds this out. And don't ya know that he and Ashley argue & end their verging romance. And don't ya know that Kate is in Hog Heaven at this reveal ... almost literally. But there's a twist towards the end of the film, of course. What, oh what will happen to Henry & Ashley? Come on, it's easy to assume that they'll make-up, Kate will have learned her lesson, blah blah. There are other subplots in this mess. i.e., Ashley's best gay friend, Dan (Jason Biggs) professes his 5 yr. long love for her and that he's ... not gay. Nothing can salvage this film's shoddy screenplay.
I hate conversational dialogue such as "Um, so, y--, yeah, um, alright, we ... haha, um, we could do that, su--, sure, that sounds great". And it's this type of dialogue that is littered throughout the movie; it made my head hurt after a while. As far as the acting goes, no one is great here. I'd go as far as saying that Kate's parrot displays the most onscreen charisma. Lake Bell is attractive in an odd sort of way. But she has NO chemistry with Paul Rudd (quite lifeless here), and you'd want the 2 lovebirds in a screwball comedy like this to have chemistry. In fact, Ashley and her gay boyfriend have more chemistry ... talk about backfire!
Eva Longoria Parker flounders between being nails-on-a-chalkboard annoying, and earnest. You know, 'OHDB' starts miserably, it gets somewhat better towards the end, but then the last minute or so lived up to my previous expectations of it sucking. There's very little romance, and very little comedy. And the characters do and say some stupid things. About 3 or 4 times I thought 'oh, that was an amusing line'; that's it. As I said, the film isn't truly awful. I liked some of Kate (Longoria's) revenge tactics on Ashley. There are some sweet moments here & there. But the movie fails because it lacks a lot of imagination.