The title of "Over Her Dead Body" sounds more like a threat than it does a promise of something good.
It's almost as if the advertising and promotional folks are trying to warn audiences away. After all, this charmless, mediocre romantic comedy with supernatural overtones is nearly laughless.
And as such, it's hardly the sort of thing that's going to further the movie aspirations of "Desperate Housewives" diva Eva Longoria Parker.
She stars as Kate, the controlling bride-to-be of kind-hearted veterinarian Henry (Paul Rudd). Unfortunately for Kate, she is crushed by an ice sculpture before the two can tie the knot.
As you'd expect, the broken-hearted Henry isn't amused by that ironic turn and is having a hard time moving on.
And rather than heading to the afterlife, Kate has remained on Earth as a ghostly presence, so she can interfere in Henry's personal life. She's doing everything she can to sabotage his romance with Ashley (Lake Bell), a caterer who sometimes moonlights as a psychic.
Screenwriter-turned-director Jeff Lowell's first feature has a terminal case of the cutes. And his screenplay is not just predictable, it's also short on any genuinely funny bits.
As for Longoria Parker, she looks like she's been spending too much time in a tanning bed and offers a one-note variation on her unpleasant "Housewives" character.
Not that Bell and Rudd are any better. They're two of the blandest presences in recent memory, and even the usually amusing Lindsay Sloane, Jason Biggs and Stephen Root fail to generate any laughs in supporting roles.
"Over Her Dead Body" is rated PG-13 for crude sexual humor and references, some bodily function humor, scattered profanity, supposedly comic violence (slapstick pratfalls and such), a brief sex scene (mostly overheard), glimpses of nude artwork and partial female nudity, and some brief drug content and references (veterinary prescription medicines). Running time: 96 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com