Review of Over Her Dead Body (2008) by Daniel P — 14 May 2009

"I like my apartment. Nobody hassles me if I don't smile." "Janet? I can already tell I won't like her. She sounds like somebody with a dream catcher." "Buying a sandwich for someone you've never had a sandwich with is a lot harder than you think.

I mean just the bread. I started off with whole-wheat., but then I worried that, you know, I'm saying you're kind of a crunchy person who only eats whole-wheat. I almost went with pumpernickel but then I'd look like the kind of guy who wants to impose my weird bread fetish on everyone.

And you know now I'm one of those idiots who just prattles on in answer machines. And also uses words like 'prattles'." As soon as you start to think about it too much, Over Her Dead Body just feels.

.. icky. For me at least, it gave me that nasty taste in my mouth - the way death is treated reminded me a little of the film version of Casper. The way the concept of heaven is treated here (apologies for the use of the word 'concept', but I'm an atheist so for me it's appropriate) is also a bit bizarre.

And between Ghost and Just Like Heaven there are already too many films like this. That said, as you might be able to tell from my copious use of quotes above, I found quite a lot of funny stuff here.

Chiefly, the witty/cute lines are courteous of the always fantastic Paul Rudd. His character pops out from all the others (and I wouldn't be surprised if he ad-libbed some of his lines, as he has the talent for it), making his scenes a joy.

It's odd that Langoria-Parker gets headlining credit, since of the four main characters, she probably has the least amount of screen time. However, she's actually not bad, so props to her. Lake Bell has a bit of a Grace Adler vibe that sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

Jason Biggs is awful as Bell's best friend, quelle surprise. Though Over Her Dead Body has a made for TV vibe, it's funny enough to be worth a watch - particularly for fans of Rudd like myself - or those keen to see how successful Parker is outside her Desperate Housewives role (pretty successful as it goes).