‘Over Your Dead Body’ Review: Jason Segel and Samara Weaving Are Out to Kill Each Other in a Mad Thriller That May Be the Quintessential SXSW Movie
Jorma Taccone's new action-comedy "Over Your Dead Body," starring Jason Segel as an indie director on a downward spiral from success to obscurity and Samara Weaving in her first leading role, is currently generating mixed reviews at the SXSW film festival.
Key Points
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1'Over Your Dead Body' is described as both a gleefully gory comic thriller by Hollywood Reporter and an off-the-rails action comedy with shaggy execution by TheWrap.
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2Jason Segel plays Dan, once-promising indie director turned washed-up screenwriter who has fallen out of love in the film's central crisis.
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3Samara Weaving stars as Lisa, a middling actress or unsuccessful theatre performer whose marriage to her husband is already deep into trouble at its start.
Developments
The article argues that while films often use extreme violence for ironic humor through unexpected execution, 'Over Your Dead Body' fails to be funny due to its unrelenting sadism. It criticizes the film's lackluster chemistry between Samara Weaving and Jason Segel as a couple planning mutual murder despite their long-standing breakup.
The R-rated film *Over Your Dead Body*, directed by Jorma Taccone and starring Jason Segel as Dan Samara Weaving, follows a debt-ridden couple who secretly plan to murder each other after their marriage collapses. Their deadly weekend getaway turns into an extended gory survival battle when interrupted by three dangerous outsiders before the two eventually turn on one another in what critics describe as "sickily enjoyable" violence from both sides of this strange compatibility
Jorma Taccone's 'Over Your Dead Body' is described as "thrilling if shaggy" action comedy that adapts Tommy Wirkola's 2017 film (noted in the text) into a story where two estranged spouses unknowingly attempt to murder each other. The review praises its strong bookends and ability to transform marital strife into physical survival, though it notes "a languorous second act nearly derails" this momentum before ending on high points regarding bloodshed involving kitchen knives.
SXSW has established itself as unique among major film festivals for championing violent yet ironic movies that blend action and comedy. The article highlights the festival's premiere of "Over Your Dead Body," an aggressive, humorous drama about a couple planning to murder each other at their father-in-law's cabin in upstate New York while hiding behind flamboyant nonchalance.