Life After Beth (2014)

Life After Beth (2014)

I was told to see this film.

I was told it was very funny.

Unfortunately, I didn’t buy into the film’s humor. 

None of these actors are any of my favorites.

Aubrey Plaza is great to see in an interview. But I’m not sure I like her films. Anyway, I’ll continue my quest, as I always do as a film fan. 

Dane DeHaan is often proof that a film can’t be good in his presence. 

I didn’t like him in The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, I didn’t like Chronicle (2012) and he pissed me off again in this film. My favorite is still the very dark “A Cure for Wellness (2016)”, in which he did a great job. 

Haven’t seen “Valérian et la Cité des Mille Planètes” yet, but I will. 

As for John C. Reilly, he’s one of those likeable actors you see everywhere in more or less minor roles, except in the excellent “Carnage” where he plays one of the four leads. It’s a pleasure to see him, but I’m not going to see a film just for him. 

This film is a far cry from Zombieland, Shawn of the Dead or the touching Warm Bodies.

I saw that two critics ranked this film among the masterpieces and two among the very good films. Ouch! 

I had to continue my research and dig deep to find people who think more or less like me.

And I found five. 

Here they are :

1) “Life after Beth” is a very bad film. In addition to starting from a weak, reheated concept, this feature makes poor use of it, resulting in a flabby, uninspired plot. I don’t know what direction the filmmaker wanted to go in, but none of the genres tackled (romance, comedy, horror) work. The end result is a good hour and a half of boredom.”

2) “The film is so bad that my girlfriend was mad at me for putting it on… You wait all the way through the film for an explanation for the script, which goes in all directions, and in the end it’s just that the scriptwriters went nuts.” 

3) “Flat film… I couldn’t find the humor in it, even though I’m usually a good audience member. I hoped all the way through that it would take off in vain… to be quickly forgotten!” 

4) “It rarely happens that I have to force myself to watch a film, but this one had that effect on me. While some people laughed while watching it, I found it desolate and boring as hell. A not too demanding teen movie at best. Zombies arriving from who knows where, a story with no head or tail… you’re always wondering where you’re going, with the strange impression that the script was written as the film went along. Offbeat, crazy, badly put together, it won’t go down in history.

Only the soundtrack struck me as very interesting, including some smooth jazz gems by French composers, whose quality far exceeds that of the film.

And that’s its only interest…” 

5) “With a hollow screenplay and insipid direction, I wasn’t thrilled with this film, which may appeal to fans of the genre, but I’m not sure. Aubrey Plaza does what she can, I love this actress and if the film is a flop it’s not because of her, so too bad.”