Over Her Dead Body

TV Guide Ken Fox

This madcap paranormal love triangle is charming on its own terms.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

A stiff of a supernatural comedy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Back to Wisteria Lane, Eva, and stay there until we call you.

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.

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Seriously lacks both romance and comedy.

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.

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.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason Anderson

Few things are more painful to watch than a botched comedy.

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.

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.

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.

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.