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Recent releases:
- Fall Guy, The
- That They May Face the Rising Sun
- Jericho Ridge
- Civil War
- Mothers' Instinct
- Sweet East, The
- Ghost Busters: Frozen Empire
- Immaculate
- Roaring Twenties, The (reissue)
- Soul
- Dune: part two
- American Star
- Dune: Part 1 (reissue)
- Jerry & Marge Go Large
- Argylle
- Forever Young
- Jackdaw
- All of Us Strangers
- Holdovers, The
- Mean Girls
Over Her Dead Body
Stars: Eva Longoria (Parker), Paul Rudd, Jason Biggs, Lake Bell, Lindsay Sloane, Stephen Root, Kali Rocha, W Morgan Sheppard, Sam Pancake
Director: Jeff Lowell
Anyone remember Blithe Spirit? Topper? Heaven Can Wait? It would seem that writer and first time feature film director Lowell does with this limp and lacklustre alleged romantic comedy which finds bossy Longoria making life hell for everyone prior to her imminent marriage to vet Rudd. Until, that is, she is crushed to death by a huge ice sculpture of an angel (could that be Lucifer, the original Fallen Angel, I wonder?).
A year later Rudds sister Sloane persuades him it is time to move on with his life and gets him to see psychic Bell whereupon Longorias spectre turns up seething with rage and jealousy and sets out to break up the growing attraction between psychic and patient
So far, so uninspired. The comic situations are mostly contrived and unfunny (not entirely surprising, perhaps since one of the films proposed titles was the enticing How I Met My Boyfriends Dead Fiancee) and the characterization is pretty basic (notably Biggs as Bell's gay asistant), with Longoria delivering a largely unfunny riff on her role in Desperate Housewives. Rudd does the best he can under the circumstances while Boston Legal star Bell shows promise but needs good direction and good script to realise it. And Biggs should look for a new agent.
Alan Frank
USA 2008. UK Distributor: Entertainment Film Distributors. Colour.
95 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.
Review date: 31 Jan 2008