Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
30
(29 sources)
30
(29 sources)
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63
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50
USA Today
Though the tale may fall short on imagination, the principal actors make Over Her Dead Body livelier than one would expect. Read Full Review » -
50
Philadelphia Inquirer
What ensues may be predictable, but the slapstick performances of Rudd and Bell are anything but. They court, they spark, and a few times they catch comic fire. Read Full Review » -
50
LA Weekly
Many a comic potentiality is underworked, and the film's prevailing tone is obnoxiously erratic -- surely the supporting eccentrics (Jason Biggs and Lindsay Sloane) aren't supposed to be so off-putting? -- but it rests safe when entrusted to the charisma of its principals. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Tribune
The slapstick is crudely executed. And the movie never makes up its mind regarding how nasty the ghost of Kate is going to play her revenge tactics. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Sun-Times
Consider for a moment how this movie might play if it took itself seriously. Would it be better than as a comedy? I suspect so. Read Full Review » -
50
Washington Post
In her imperfectly beautiful way, Bell suggests Carole Lombard. As a comedian, Bell is enough of a distraction that you can forgive all the inanities around her. And there are many. Read Full Review » -
50
ReelViews
The result, while not horrifically bad, is as mediocre a motion picture as you're likely to find in a multiplex this season. It's tough to hate the movie because it doesn't generate enough emotion for that kind of passion. Read Full Review » -
50
The New York Times
For what it is -- a romantic comedy about the rivalry between a jealous ghost and a flaky psychic for the love of a veterinarian -- Over Her Dead Body is not bad. Read Full Review » -
42
The Onion (A.V. Club)
It's said that opposites attract, but for the brief period they're onscreen together in the dire comedy Over Her Dead Body, Eva Longoria Parker and Paul Rudd are one of the more bizarrely mismatched couples in recent memory. Read Full Review » -
42
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42
Portland Oregonian
To be fair, Rudd and Bell are cute and funny in their scenes together, and Rudd salvages a few laughs with his deadpan line readings. Read Full Review » -
42
Entertainment Weekly
Rudd's talents as a thinking woman's charmer are wasted -- as are those of amiable Jason Biggs in a weak variation on the pop theme of being a gal's gay best friend. Read Full Review » -
40
Los Angeles Times
For what is essentially a screwball comedy, Over Her Dead Body is surprisingly uninspired, a frothy concept that offers little satisfaction in the way of execution. Read Full Review » -
40
Chicago Reader
Playing a competitive schemer not unlike her "Desperate Housewives" character, Parker doesn't generate much heat, while Rudd is squandered in a bland role. Read Full Review » -
40
The Hollywood Reporter
Rudd is an underappreciated comic actor, and his line readings are the best thing in the film, but the bland role barely taps his talent. Amid the rest of the cast's one-note posing, his scenes with a parrot have a spontaneity and wit otherwise in short supply. Read Full Review » -
40
Variety
Even the weakest "Desperate Housewives" episode packs more heat than this tepid romantic comedy-fantasy, whose basic plot gimmick has been done as far back as "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir." Read Full Review » -
38
New York Post
At some point, this movie must have been a screenplay. But it's an enigma why anyone would bet tens of millions of dollars that people would laugh. Read Full Review » -
38
New York Daily News
Back to Wisteria Lane, Eva, and stay there until we call you. Read Full Review » -
38
Premiere
The silver lining in the film is Paul Rudd, who brings some nuance to his character that, given his past work, you can assume was all his doing. Jason Biggs, in his role as Ashley's gay best friend and catering partner, carries out an interesting, if somewhat left-field plot twist. Read Full Review » -
25
Rolling Stone
I like Longoria Parker on "Desperate Housewives" and truly believe she could have a career on the big screen if she promises to never again work with writer-director Jeff Lowell, who perpetrated this offense of a ghost comedy on her and on her otherwise gifted co-stars Paul Rudd and Lake Bell. Read Full Review » -
25
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25
Baltimore Sun
A hopeless pastiche of timeworn plotlines, hackneyed dialogue and stultifying direction; to call it amateurish is a slap in the face to amateurs everywhere. Read Full Review » -
25
Miami Herald
It's not quite true to say that death is preferable to sitting through Over HerDead Body, but it's a safe bet that if you struggle through this witless romantic comedy the lure of being six feet under will cross your mind. Read Full Review » -
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Few things are more painful to watch than a botched comedy. Read Full Review » -
20
Wall Street Journal
The kindest context in which to put Over Her Dead Body, which was written and directed by Jeff Lowell, is that of a training film, a public display of people trying to master their craft. The best way to see it is not at all. Read Full Review » -
20
Austin Chronicle
Where Over Her Dead Body should soar with blistering verbal gymnastics, it limps with empty sass about weight gain and skin blemishes; where it should race with inventive comic set-pieces, it slogs with extended flatulence sequences and gags about lifting overweight dogs. Read Full Review » -
12
Boston Globe
Over Her Dead Body is to romantic comedy what Spam is to meat. But at least with Spam, you get cool packaging. Read Full Review » -
0
Salon.com
May be the worst romantic comedy I've ever seen, although I hesitate to make such a resolute pronouncement about a movie that's so barely even THERE. Read Full Review »
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