Over Your Dead Body is an English-language remake of a Norwegian film called The Trip (2021). The original movie was directed by Tommy Wirkola, who previously gave us the awesome Violent Night and is currently hard at work on the sequel. The remake was directed by Jorma Taccone, who’s still best known as one-third of The Lonely Island. (I’m not a fan, I’ve already said that on the record numerous times.) That is not an upgrade.

Yet somehow, this is an 87North production. 87North. Team John Wick. Making an action/comedy with the guy who made Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping. In fact, Violent Night was another 87North production, which explains the Wirkola connection.

Anyway, 87North has tried and failed so many times to make an effective action/comedy, maybe they figured it would help to work with a comedy director. In theory, that would be sound logic. And it might’ve actually worked with literally any other comedy director.

This is the story of Dan and Lisa Burton (cute little pun with the surname, there), respectively played by Jason Segel and Samara Weaving. Dan is a spineless put-upon coward who might’ve been a great cinematic auteur if he hadn’t sold out his integrity to shoot commercials. Lisa is a spoiled stuck-up bitch who fancies herself a serious actor and doesn’t feel like her husband is doing enough to support her.

Dan and Lisa are seven years into a rough marriage when they take a trip out to the lakeside cabin owned by Dan’s father (a boomer stereotype gamely played by Paul Guilfoyle). The kicker is that unbeknownst to Lisa, Dan has secretly plotted to kill his wife for the insurance money and stage it as a hiking accident. At the same time, Lisa has secretly plotted to kill her husband for the insurance money and stage it as a hunting accident.

Thus we have our romantic action comedy, in which two unhappy spouses vent their marital frustrations as they try to murder each other. Further complicating matters, we have a wild card: Henry (Jake Curran), Dan’s old high school friend, intended accomplice, and dumbest motherfucker on the planet. But wait, there’s more!

Further compounding matters, we have Pete and Todd, respectively played by Timothy Olyphant and Keith Jardine. They’re a couple of convicted homicidal maniacs who recently escaped from prison, with the help of a deranged corrections officer (Allegra, played by Juliette Lewis). These nutjobs intervene when they’re discovered hiding on the lam in the same lakeside cabin. Lots to unpack here.

• Dan and Pete each only pretend to love their respective partners, but Pete really is the toughened battle-ready asshole that Pete is constantly pressured to be (by his wife, his father, etc.).
• Lisa and Allegra are both self-centered assholes, but Allegra’s far more delusional and her love for Pete is pathetically sincere.
• Henry and Todd are both the brain-dead muscle, but Todd really is the unstoppable badass that Henry only thinks he is.

In other words, what we’ve got here is an ideal dark mirror for Dan and Lisa to confront in the process of re-evaluating themselves and their marriage. And yeah, the fight scenes between these characters are every bit as creative and bloody as anything I’d expect from 87North. Sure, it’s nothing on the level of “John Wick” proficiency, but it’s much more outrageously cartoonish. And given how pathetically stupid these characters all are, “over-the-top comically inept” was the smart way to go. Even better, the film plays with non-chronological storytelling with such brilliant setups/payoffs, it’s perfectly clear that this was a film about stupid characters made by smart people.

Here’s the problem: the comedy is godawful.

Right up front, we’re stuck with two thoroughly unlikable characters who spend all their time sniping at each other. And this is supposed to be the joke. We get an entire scene that’s nothing but Dan and Lisa literally competing with each other to see who can deliver the most over-the-top hammy performance, and that’s the entire joke. Except it’s not funny to watch these two making each other miserable. It’s only fucking miserable.

From start to finish, the comedy ranges anywhere from obnoxious to outright mean-spirited. Things hit a nadir at the halfway point, with an attempted sexual assault. I’m totally serious. One character clearly and explicitly tries to violently subdue and rape another character, the whole thing is shown onscreen with zero ambiguity, and it’s all played for laughs. There’s no coming back from that.

What’s crazy is that I can picture a world in which Over Your Dead Body might’ve worked. The action is there. The cast is there. The clever plotting is there. Even the heart is there. But the comedy kills all of it.

I want to blame Jorma Taccone for this, and it’s perfectly obvious he was not the man for the job. Akiva Schaffer of The Naked Gun (2025) could’ve done a better job. Max Barbakow of Palm Springs could’ve done a better job. Ask anybody “Do you think attempted rape is funny?” and literally anybody who immediately answers in the negative would’ve been a better choice by default.

Alas, the common denominator here is 87North. It’s been repeatedly proven, time and again, that Team John Wick cannot do comedy. No matter what the subgenre, no matter how much money and talent they throw at the problem, they keep consistently failing at making an an action/comedy blend in which the comedy rises to the level of the action.

Granted, 87North has a particular brand of over-the-top comedy that nicely translates into “Itchy and Scratchy” over-the-top comedy. We get a fair bit of that here, and some of their other attempts (Bullet Train and Violent Night come immediately to mind) had their moments. But I’ve yet to see an 87North comedy that keeps the characters funny and endearing in between the fight scenes. It’s simply beyond them.

Here’s hoping they crack the code soon, because this is getting embarrassing. Seriously, playing attempted rape for comedy, what the fuck?!