Jorma Taccone’s “Over Your Dead Body” stars Jason Segel and Samara Weaving as an unpleasant couple who try to rekindle their failing bond by spending a weekend in the woods together.
Things immediately go bad once they arrive at a deserted cabin. Attempts to make things romantic bring out caustic resentment. When their true intentions are revealed and prove to be less than honorable, they turn against one another in a war of more than words.
Then, more people show up and the stabbings and attempted homicides increase with every passing moment.
This limp comedy, shockingly from one of the members of The Lonely Island, demonstrates, once again, that Danny DeVito’s “The War of the Roses” (1989) is still the best, funniest, smartest and most impactful of the violent love stories.
This weak farce slowly gives way to gory slapstick and is just the latest “Ready or Not 2” or “They Will Kill You.”
Paul Guilfoyle, playing Segel’s had-it-up-to-here father, makes a third-act re-entry into the story that is the film’s funniest sequence.
Weaving gives the most compelling turn of the two leads and no movie with Juliette Lewis can be all bad.
Segel is one note and doesn’t connect to the material as he has in better vehicles. Strange but true – Segel had better chemistry with The Muppets in the 2011 “The Muppets” than he does here with Weaving.
It has its moments, but Taccone’s film is nowhere near as funny as his “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” (2016) or, really, anything he and his collaborators put out on “SNL” during their rule as The Lonely Island (the Michael Bolton-powered “Jack Sparrow” is an instant laugh inducer for me).
“Over Your Dead Body” plays like “The Break Up” (2006) if it were invaded by “Straw Dogs” (1971) and winds up just as funny as that sounds. Unlike the best comedies that blend human cruelty with refreshingly subversive humor, this one is, indeed, nasty but always desperate.
Despite the level of the carnage (which includes, no joke, an attempted rape and a slaughter by lawnmower), this always feels low stakes and lightweight. The tendency here is to allow the violence to get ugly, then dip back into cheery sentiment.
It’s hard to tell if Taccone just couldn’t handle the tonal changes or if he felt what was needed is to let the audience know it’s all a joke. As a comedy, “Over Your Dead Body” is hateful and ugly but as a thriller, its distractingly chipper.
Among the most inspired touches is an out-of-left-field inclusion of Al Pacino’s audiobook (which isn’t to say that Pacino is in the movie). I laughed a few times at some unexpected moments of physical humor and everyone on screen is visibly giving this their all, but the overall effect is numbing.
Allow me to remind readers of “Splitsville,” last year’s comedy starring Dakota Johnson.
That film is also set in an isolated location, deals with couples falling out of love, and is consistently hilarious, the best comedy of 2025.
“Splitsville” is an ideal substitute for this forgettable time-waster.
One and a half stars (out of four)
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