|
'Over Her Dead Body' movie review |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Written by Roger Moore
|
|
Thursday, 31 January 2008 |
|
|
|
|
That narrow window TV stars have to pick a plum film project to shoot around their ongoing “day jobs” provides a ready excuse for “Over Her Dead Body,” a wan, sad-eyed romantic comedy that has Eva Longoria Parker playing a ghost who tries to keep a psychic from unscrupulously taking up with her fiance.
The generally stiff “Body,” which features Paul Rudd as Henry, the fiance, and Lake Bell as the sham psychic, conjures up just a handful of laughs, no more.
Longoria Parker is Kate, the micro-managing bride-to-be who is comically killed on her wedding day. She shows up in the afterlife with “unfinished business.” But she’s too busy complaining about her situation to get all the details on that business. Thus, when she’s sent back, “haunting” her groom-to-be, she’s not what sure she’s supposed to do.
Hint: Prove your love by helping him move on.
She is with him when he meets the ditsy caterer-psychic Ashley (Bell) who wants to help. Ashley can help. She can hear Kate. But both women are torn. Kate seems to want to hang onto Henry, and Ashley develops an almost instant conflict of interest. She digs the guy.
A war of wills ensues, with the ghost comically tormenting the psychic (shades of “Ghost”) and the psychic torn between using unethical short-cuts to win the guy’s heart, or doing the right thing.
When writer-director Jeff Lowell runs out of things to recycle from other afterlife romances, he turns to the most generic romantic-comedy cliches. Ashley’s gay catering assistant/best pal/confessor is played by Jason Biggs, who struggles to wring a laugh out of an exhausted romantic comedy “type.” Rudd, at least, still has the comic timing to make his few zingers sing.
“So, do you bring all your psychics home?” Ashley purrs after a date.
“You shouldn’t have to ask” is his perfectly timed comeback.
His raised eyebrow at folks who listen to “psychics” and listen to “Torri AAaaa-mos” music (they’re one and the same, he says) is worth a cackle.
Stephen Root, as the drunken ice sculptor who causes all this grief, steals a couple of scenes.
And our “Desperate Housewife”? She didn’t have much to work with and doesn’t really commit to what little there is. “Over Her Dead Body” didn’t give her enough scenes to be responsible for “carrying” the movie. A mere two costumes and two hairstyles and a few weekends of work was all it cost her.
Oh, and one “Desperate Housewives” hiatus.
‘OVER HER DEAD BODY’
Critic says: 2 stars
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and language
Running time: 1 hr. 35 mins.
Starring: Eva Longoria Parker, Paul Rudd, Lake Bell, Jason Biggs
Showing at: Carmike 10, Cinemark 16, Cinemark Greeley Mall
————— | Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
|
|  | "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth." | |
|  | We're not that bright, even though in our own little world, we're geniuses. We like 80s hair bands and one-hit wonders, but among us we have respectable tastes, too. Metallica, Iron Maiden, U2. Pursuit of all things trivial is a lifestyle, not just a game. We like some sports, love other sports, and can find something to say about anything. We watch TV and movies and we've read a book or two, even a few classics (Yes, Classic Comics count!)
We call it insight, you call it what you will. | |
|  | Felix Wong is an outdoor enthusiast living in Fort Collins. A mechanical engineer by day, he is especially passionate about bicycling, running, and backpacking. | |
|  | Hola Amigos! I'm Sandra. I like to believe that people are 70 percent good and 30 percent dumb. I'm stickin to that story. Reading this blog might make you want to be good, but probably just dumb. | |
|  | Donovan Henderson is editor of NEXTnc. | |
|  | Here at Nextnc we have some characters. Get a sneak peak behind the curtain and find out what amusing antics our staffers get themselves into on a weekly basis. | |
|  | What is up FoCo?
I am a recent college graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. After recieving my B.A. in English and Mass Communications this past August I moved down to Colorado.
I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and heavy metal. My hobbies include reading and writing, music, movies, and getting drunk. Some of my favorite contemporary authors include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Kurt Vonnegut. My top movies are anything directed by Kubrick. I enjoy listening to anything that rocks.
Right now I am just trying to get to know Colorado and FoCo better. Mostly in order to find the best drink specials on each day that ends in Y. So if you know where I can get a cheap drunk on, let me know!
--Drew | |
|  | Life's little morsels of inspiration, observation and encouragement seen through the eyes of the Nextnc reporter.
| |
|  | over and out | |
| | My name is Michelle Turley and I'm 28 years old. I live in Severance with my hubbie, Brandon. We have 2 dogs and a cat. We enjoy camping, four-wheeling, and just being in the mountains. I like to cook, clean (go figure), flea market, and play poker. I have so much to say about poker... | |
|
|
