Over Her Dead Body (2008)

If you're an actress making a star vehicle that doesn't challenge you in the slightest, you at least want to own it, rather than becoming a footnote in your own movie. But this was the fate of Eva Longoria Parker in Over Her Dead Body. She's consistently outshone by spunky co-star Lake Bell, an actress far less famous than the erstwhile desperate housewife. Longoria Parker looks like she'd rather be anywhere else -- the set of her TV show, the sidelines of a San Antonio Spurs game -- than making a movie about a deceased bride who haunts her groom's new girlfriend. Her perfunctory line deliveries can be partly blamed on novice director Jeff Lowell, whose script also forgets about its star for 20 minutes of the first half. Whatever Over Her Dead Body does well can be traced to the fresh-faced Bell, whose enthusiasm is contagious, and Paul Rudd, whose deliveries enhance the lines as much as Longoria Parker's work highlights their flaws. Despite some funny individual moments, Bell and Rudd don't have great chemistry, so even the best scenes feel uneven. The worst scenes consist of a prank-filled catfight between Henry's living romantic interest and his dead one. Most painfully, the bride simulates a long bout of flatulence supposedly emitted by Henry during a weekend getaway, in order to gross out the psychic. If the script committed to the consequences of these gags -- like, the psychic was actually grossed out and it actually affected the weekend -- then that might be interesting. But Lowell gives up on the joke by revealing it too quickly. A purpose-driven ghost has many methods at her disposal to get what she wants from the living, and being as annoying as possible certainly helps. But this stuff hasn't been fresh since Ghost, 18 years earlier. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide