Review: Unoriginal 'Dead Body' Needs Transfusion
Eva Longoria Parker Saves Bad Script From Being D.O.A.
POSTED: 11:48 am CST February 1, 2008
'Over Her Dead Body' (PG-13)
(out of four)"Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria Parker adds glamour and credibility to a movie that's really nothing more than a big-screen made-for-TV film."Over Her Dead Body" stars Longoria Parker as Kate, a fussy bride-to-be who gets crushed by an ice sculpture on her wedding day, then comes back to Earth as a ghost to ensure her fiancée, Henry, (Paul Rudd) doesn't get hooked up.But hook up he does after his sister, Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) decides he should go to see a friend, a psychic, to help get him over the tragedy that's thrust upon him.Ashley (Lake Bell) never believed in her psychic abilities until Kate appears to her as a ghost after she's had a session with Henry. The usual mayhem ensues as Kate makes Ashley's life unbearable, practically lighting her on fire when Ashley's catering a wedding, and conjuring voices so the psychic runs screaming wrapped only in a towel at a gym.Bell is actually one of the saving graces of the movie and it's sure to put her on a comedic Hollywood track. She has good looks and great comic timing. Jason Biggs is wasted as Ashley's sidekick in her catering business. A scene where he lights himself on fire is confusing and sorely out of place. Rudd is his usual congenial self, but there's never any real explanation why nice-guy Henry would be attracted to a woman like Kate the Shrew.Although Longoria Parker is given some bad material to work with, she has some very funny moments and relishes in her role as a devilish ghost. Longoria Parker has charisma, there's no doubt about it, whether she's on the small screen or big screen. A self-proclaimed workaholic, the actress put in seven-day workweeks between the shooting of "Desperate Housewives" and the movie schedule. She also wears costume designer Tracy Tynan's white clothes so well.The cast of "Body" gives it their all, but it's the thin script by director-writer Jeff Lowell that needs a blood transfusion. "Over Her Dead Body" isn't exactly dead on arrival, it just could have used an injection of originality.
(out of four)"Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria Parker adds glamour and credibility to a movie that's really nothing more than a big-screen made-for-TV film."Over Her Dead Body" stars Longoria Parker as Kate, a fussy bride-to-be who gets crushed by an ice sculpture on her wedding day, then comes back to Earth as a ghost to ensure her fiancée, Henry, (Paul Rudd) doesn't get hooked up.But hook up he does after his sister, Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) decides he should go to see a friend, a psychic, to help get him over the tragedy that's thrust upon him.Ashley (Lake Bell) never believed in her psychic abilities until Kate appears to her as a ghost after she's had a session with Henry. The usual mayhem ensues as Kate makes Ashley's life unbearable, practically lighting her on fire when Ashley's catering a wedding, and conjuring voices so the psychic runs screaming wrapped only in a towel at a gym.Bell is actually one of the saving graces of the movie and it's sure to put her on a comedic Hollywood track. She has good looks and great comic timing. Jason Biggs is wasted as Ashley's sidekick in her catering business. A scene where he lights himself on fire is confusing and sorely out of place. Rudd is his usual congenial self, but there's never any real explanation why nice-guy Henry would be attracted to a woman like Kate the Shrew.Although Longoria Parker is given some bad material to work with, she has some very funny moments and relishes in her role as a devilish ghost. Longoria Parker has charisma, there's no doubt about it, whether she's on the small screen or big screen. A self-proclaimed workaholic, the actress put in seven-day workweeks between the shooting of "Desperate Housewives" and the movie schedule. She also wears costume designer Tracy Tynan's white clothes so well.The cast of "Body" gives it their all, but it's the thin script by director-writer Jeff Lowell that needs a blood transfusion. "Over Her Dead Body" isn't exactly dead on arrival, it just could have used an injection of originality.Distributed by Internet Broadcasting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
