Over Her Dead Body (2008)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

How sad is this?

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

... but you have to wonder about Paul Rudd's character, Henry. Henry is a veterinarian whose fiancée, Kate, dies on their wedding day in a freak accident involving an ice sculpture, partially caused by Kate's being argumentative.So a year later and Henry is still moping around. His sister plots to get psychic Ashley (Lake Bell) to read Kate's diary so she knows some authentic information about her so Ashley can convince Henry that she is authentic, and then send him a fake message from beyond that tells Henry that Kate wants him to move on with his life.But faking Kate's voice will not be necessary as her ghost is back on earth, after another argument in the afterlife causes the angel who is supposed to tell her why she is being sent back to earth just throws up her arms and walks out. So Kate's spirit is aimless on earth, other than knowing she does not like seeing Ashley and Henry together.The movie is largely predictable, but it is a nice relaxing watch if you just want to be entertained with something that does not involve violence or explicit sex scenes. It keeps things light.One more thing - getting back to Henry. Why is it he sees the crazy in all of the female cat owners he encounters at his vet practice, but doesn't see that Kate was an argumentative nightmare, his sister is manipulative enough to be willing to breach a sacred confidence, and Ashley has been involved in one long chronic lie? Or if he does see it, he is OK with all of that? It does seem that the movies like to paint men as jellyfish weaklings these days, but other than that I'd say this one is worth the watch but won't be remembered in the year 2050.

Over her dead body starring Eva Longoria and Paul Rudd is very formulaic, it follows the usual expected formula of a film in this genre, doesn't miss a beat. There are a couple funny moments and lines, but it's really only a couple, the movie is not consistently good or funny. That's the film's biggest issue, not being consistent. Eva longoria was pretty enjoyable in her role, I liked her. I didn't really care for anyone else lol. I though Paul Rudd and Jason Biggs and lake bell were actually kinda annoying here, did not enjoy them at all. I didn't think Paul had any good chemistry with Lake either, another issue I took with the movie. Like I said, there are some funny lines and moments, all thanks to Eva Longoria. She is what got this movie a 5, without her it probably would've been like a 3, never underestimate good casting. Jason Biggs and his character was just unnecessary and irritating to be honest. There were some long moments of unfunny situations that were meant to be funny and create some laughter, but they tried and failed, them they stretched out the failing scene, which made it worse. A 5/10 overall for Over her dead body.

After the first five minutes this movie just 'flatlines'. It's dead!The first five minutes actually got my interest and curiosity up to see where this story was going. Eva Longoria is convincing as the hyper bossy bride to be obsessing on her wedding day set up. But then she and the movie just die - dead!The movie becomes a struggle to watch after just five minutes and the empty attempts at humor are actually depressing and sad. The only positive opinion I can offer is that the sets and clothes and colors are very nice and pleasing to see. If it had not been for that I would have been completely depressed at the end of the movie.I felt sorry for the actors. And the Jason Biggs character twist near the end was needless and ridiculous.

Imagine a cross between Ghost and My Best Friend's Wedding or a similar film, and that is pretty much how you could sum up this film, one which I saw clips of and thought it may be relatively amusing, but I also saw the mostly negative reviews for it, so I had to see what I would think. Basically Kate (Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria) and Henry (Paul Rudd) are happy and preparing to get married, but an accident occurs involving the ice sculptor (Stephen Root) who is drunk, and Kate ends up being crushed by the ice sculpture of an angel (without wings), and arriving in Purgatory she wastes her time arguing with an Angel (Kali Rocha) who does not have wings, and she misses whatever she must do to move on. A year passes, and Henry is advised by his sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) to find closure by opening up to and consulting with psychic Ashley (Lake Bell), who with her gay best friend Dan (Jason Biggs) also runs a catering business, their first meeting is unsuccessful, so Chloe gives Ashley Kate's diary so she can pretend to communicate with her spirit and help him move on. During their time Henry and Ashley find themselves falling in love with each other, unaware that the ghost of Kate has returned to the world and is watching, and Ashley finds she truly has the psychic ability as she can see and hear her, and obviously she is not happy that she is with the man she was going to marry. Kate is still unsure of why she is on earth, and she finds out that the ice sculptor is dead as well, and he tells her that she has unfinished business, and she thinks that she needs to protect Henry from something, so she does everything she can, for her personal pride as well, to keep Ashley away from the man who would of married her. She uses many of her newfound ghostly abilities to stop Henry and Ashley getting together, such as walking through walls, levitation and moving objects, all to make the new couple break up, she does this while they are dating and even attempting to have sex for the first time, while Ashley tries things to get rid of her, such as exorcism. It seems though that they do break up when Henry finds that Ashley borrowed Kate's diary from Chloe, so he thinks that she has been fake all the time, and when she turns to Dan for some comfort he finally reveals that he is not and has never been gay since they met, he just kept up the act with her thinking it, he has loved her ages. Kate watches Henry fall into a deep depression and feels guilty, and encountering the ice sculptor again she realises she wants him to be happy, the ice sculptor moves on because his unfinished business was to help her see the right thing to do, and she does. She goes to tell Ashley that she should be with Henry, but she does not believe she is being truthful and is planning to leave with Dan to Las Vegas, but using the talking pet parrot to talk to her would-be husband she convinces him to get her at the airport, they reconcile and Kate gives them her blessing to be together. The film ends with Ashley briefly talking to Kate and assuring her that she will make Henry very happy, the couple happily married, Dan and Chloe become close as well, and though Kate is somewhat dismayed that it was not her getting married, she knows it is right and is ready to move on, but the Angel is still reluctant to let her into Heaven. Also starring Lindsay Sloane as Chloe, Wendi McLendon-Covey as Lona, Ali Hillis as Karen and William Morgan Sheppard as Father Marks. Longoria is alright as the bitchy dead woman trying to spoil things, Bell is okay as the girlfriend trying to have a relationship in peace, Rudd is likable enough as the guy in the middle, and Biggs gets his moments as the kook, unfortunately the script is lazy and full of clichés, it is not paced the right way, the attempts at laughs with crudeness and slapstick does not work well, and it just feels too mushy and predictable, a silly romantic comedy fantasy. Pretty poor!