CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games Books TV
Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

97 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
83 Alexandra
43 Anamorph
35 Babysitters, The
32 Backseat
80 Band's Visit, The
62 Battle for Haditha
47 Bella
63 Blind Mountain
71 Blindsight
47 Boarding Gate
63 Body of War
58 Bra Boys
70 Caramel
54 Cashback
44 Chaos Theory
32 Chapter 27
69 Chicago 10
82 Chop Shop
46 CJ7
78 Counterfeiters, The
30 Cover
48 Dark Matter
35 Deal
61 Dhamma Brothers, The
92 Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
73 Duchess of Langeais, The
20 Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
58 Fall, The
43 Favor, The
58 First Saturday in May, The
57 Flawless
87 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
xx From Within
44 Frontier(s)
59 Fugitive Pieces
41 Funny Games
66 George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
61 Girls Rock!
55 Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
57 Grand, The
58 Hats Off
68 Honeydripper
xx Jack and Jill vs. the World
67 Jellyfish
xx Kiss the Bride
37 Life Before Her Eyes, The
72 Life of Reilly, The
50 Look
65 Married Life
35 Meet Bill
63 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
54 Mister Lonely
52 My Blueberry Nights
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
52 Noise
61 OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83 Paranoid Park
55 Pathology
48 Penelope
90 Persepolis
62 Planet B-Boy
xx Plumm Summer, A
67 Praying with Lior
46 Previous Engagement, A
72 Priceless
17 Prom Night
69 Redbelt
72 Roman de gare
48 Run, Fat Boy, Run
85 Savages, The
24 Sex and Death 101
66 Shelter
75 Shotgun Stories
40 Sleepwalking
67 Snow Angels
64 Son of Rambow
71 Standard Operating Procedure
76 Stuff and Dough
64 Surfwise
xx Tashan
82 Taxi to the Dark Side
57 Teeth
56 Then She Found Me
55 Tracey Fragments, The
56 Turn the River
72 Tuya's Marriage
83 U2 3D
59 Under the Same Moon
76 Unforeseen, The
xx Unsettled
91 Up the Yangtze
55 Vice
79 Visitor, The
64 Water Lilies
45 Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
57 Without the King
74 Witnesses, The
63 XXY
67 Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75 Young@Heart
45 Zombie Strippers

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.



Over Her Dead Body
New Line Cinema

Over Her Dead Body reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 30 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
4.7 out of 10
based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 17 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sexual content and language

Starring Eva Longoria Parker, Paul Rudd, Lake Bell, Lindsay Sloane, and Jason Biggs

Devastated when his fiancée Kate is killed on their wedding day, Henry reluctantly agrees to consult a psychic named Ashley at the urging of his sister Chloe. Despite his skepticism over her psychic abilities, Henry finds himself falling hard for Ashley, and vice versa. But there is a big snag. Ashley is being haunted by Kate’s ghost, who considers it her heavenly duty to break up Henry and Ashley's fledgling romance, if it is the last thing she does on this earthly plane...(New Line Cinema)


GENRE(S): Comedy  |  Fantasy  |  Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Jeff Lowell  
DIRECTED BY: Jeff Lowell  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: May 6, 2008 
Theatrical: February 1, 2008 
RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

63
TV Guide Ken Fox
This madcap paranormal love triangle is charming on its own terms.
Read Full Review
50
USA Today Claudia Puig
Though the tale may fall short on imagination, the principal actors make Over Her Dead Body livelier than one would expect.
Read Full Review
50
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
What ensues may be predictable, but the slapstick performances of Rudd and Bell are anything but. They court, they spark, and a few times they catch comic fire.
Read Full Review
50
LA Weekly Nick Pinkerton
Many a comic potentiality is underworked, and the film's prevailing tone is obnoxiously erratic -- surely the supporting eccentrics (Jason Biggs and Lindsay Sloane) aren't supposed to be so off-putting? -- but it rests safe when entrusted to the charisma of its principals.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The slapstick is crudely executed. And the movie never makes up its mind regarding how nasty the ghost of Kate is going to play her revenge tactics.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Consider for a moment how this movie might play if it took itself seriously. Would it be better than as a comedy? I suspect so.
Read Full Review
50
Washington Post John Anderson
In her imperfectly beautiful way, Bell suggests Carole Lombard. As a comedian, Bell is enough of a distraction that you can forgive all the inanities around her. And there are many.
Read Full Review
50
ReelViews James Berardinelli
The result, while not horrifically bad, is as mediocre a motion picture as you're likely to find in a multiplex this season. It's tough to hate the movie because it doesn't generate enough emotion for that kind of passion.
Read Full Review
50
The New York Times A.O. Scott
For what it is -- a romantic comedy about the rivalry between a jealous ghost and a flaky psychic for the love of a veterinarian -- Over Her Dead Body is not bad.
Read Full Review
42
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
It's said that opposites attract, but for the brief period they're onscreen together in the dire comedy Over Her Dead Body, Eva Longoria Parker and Paul Rudd are one of the more bizarrely mismatched couples in recent memory.
Read Full Review
42
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
A stiff of a supernatural comedy.
Read Full Review
42
Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
To be fair, Rudd and Bell are cute and funny in their scenes together, and Rudd salvages a few laughs with his deadpan line readings.
Read Full Review
42
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Rudd's talents as a thinking woman's charmer are wasted -- as are those of amiable Jason Biggs in a weak variation on the pop theme of being a gal's gay best friend.
Read Full Review
40
Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
For what is essentially a screwball comedy, Over Her Dead Body is surprisingly uninspired, a frothy concept that offers little satisfaction in the way of execution.
Read Full Review
40
Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Playing a competitive schemer not unlike her "Desperate Housewives" character, Parker doesn't generate much heat, while Rudd is squandered in a bland role.
Read Full Review
40
The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
Rudd is an underappreciated comic actor, and his line readings are the best thing in the film, but the bland role barely taps his talent. Amid the rest of the cast's one-note posing, his scenes with a parrot have a spontaneity and wit otherwise in short supply.
Read Full Review
40
Variety Dennis Harvey
Even the weakest "Desperate Housewives" episode packs more heat than this tepid romantic comedy-fantasy, whose basic plot gimmick has been done as far back as "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir."
Read Full Review
38
New York Post Kyle Smith
At some point, this movie must have been a screenplay. But it's an enigma why anyone would bet tens of millions of dollars that people would laugh.
Read Full Review
38
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Back to Wisteria Lane, Eva, and stay there until we call you.
Read Full Review
38
Premiere Cortney Rock
The silver lining in the film is Paul Rudd, who brings some nuance to his character that, given his past work, you can assume was all his doing. Jason Biggs, in his role as Ashley's gay best friend and catering partner, carries out an interesting, if somewhat left-field plot twist.
Read Full Review
25
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
I like Longoria Parker on "Desperate Housewives" and truly believe she could have a career on the big screen if she promises to never again work with writer-director Jeff Lowell, who perpetrated this offense of a ghost comedy on her and on her otherwise gifted co-stars Paul Rudd and Lake Bell.
Read Full Review
25
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Seriously lacks both romance and comedy.
Read Full Review
25
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
A hopeless pastiche of timeworn plotlines, hackneyed dialogue and stultifying direction; to call it amateurish is a slap in the face to amateurs everywhere.
Read Full Review
25
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
It's not quite true to say that death is preferable to sitting through Over HerDead Body, but it's a safe bet that if you struggle through this witless romantic comedy the lure of being six feet under will cross your mind.
Read Full Review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason Anderson
Few things are more painful to watch than a botched comedy.
Read Full Review
20
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The kindest context in which to put Over Her Dead Body, which was written and directed by Jeff Lowell, is that of a training film, a public display of people trying to master their craft. The best way to see it is not at all.
Read Full Review
20
Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
Where Over Her Dead Body should soar with blistering verbal gymnastics, it limps with empty sass about weight gain and skin blemishes; where it should race with inventive comic set-pieces, it slogs with extended flatulence sequences and gags about lifting overweight dogs.
Read Full Review
12
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Over Her Dead Body is to romantic comedy what Spam is to meat. But at least with Spam, you get cool packaging.
Read Full Review
0
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
May be the worst romantic comedy I've ever seen, although I hesitate to make such a resolute pronouncement about a movie that's so barely even THERE.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 4.7 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Buzz B. gave it a0:
Lacks any charm, wit or humour. Wooden performances and awful script. Avoid.

Jake J. gave it a2:
WoW! What a stinker! Can I get my money back?

Colin F. gave it a9:
Girlfriend took me and thought i'd hate it. Acutally thought it was really funny and the lead chick was really hot.

Pat B. gave it a10:
Not just a chick flick! Girlfriend dragged me along and I thought it was funny!

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | BOOKS | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise | Partnerships                                Visit other CNET Networks sites:

Copyright ©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use