Life After Beth (Cinema Screening)

(Spoiler free)

The world is obsessed with Zombies. I never really got the whole interest in them but the countless films and TV shows that focus on them is quite astounding when you start to count them up. Shaun of the Dead would probably be my Zombie highlight in terms of films. Despite a lack of interest in the plot the lead Dane DeHaan drew me in because of his performances in The Amazing Spider-man 2 and The Place Beyond The Pines.

Dane DeHaan certainly didn’t disappoint here as he performs really well and makes this story and the character’s situations seem very real. His character was well crafted too as he demonstrated a realistic ability to deal with situations and never became ridiculous. The story itself wasn’t that original, but this is an overcrowded genre anyway so that was to be expected. I couldn’t help but feel that this film tries a little too hard to become a cult classic. Certain elements whilst didn’t seem forced did appear to be not completely natural meaning that at times I thought certain things were included for the legacy of the film rather than to enhance the film itself. This doesn’t mean that the film was bad because of this it was just a bit of a distraction but these elements were still enjoyable, as was the whole film.

DeHaan wasn’t the only cast member to perform well, I genuinely didn’t think there was a a bad performance in the movie however certain characters were just brilliant and helped along by the actors who played them. In particular I thought that Matthew Gray Gubler (Kyle) and Cheryl Hines (Judy) were fantastic. Both of these characters were direct family relations to DeHaan’s character Zach and it was these family relationships that were so funny to watch. Easily my favourite moments in the movie was when all of these characters were together, unfortunately this didn’t happen as often as I would have liked but that almost made the moments that we did get that much better. If I’m honest I don’t think much will be remembered about this film, to me it just fades into the background in terms of this genre and the other efforts from 2014. However this doesn’t mean it’s a bad film, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It was funny and had several really great performances but I would say that it is one for the cheapy cinema nights rather than full admission!

Life After Beth, whilst creative in its title most of the ideas featured are pretty unoriginal. Saying that you don’t always have to be original to make a good film and that is the case here. Some gems of comedy are included here, largely responsible are the main family unit and their performances are just as impressive. Not one for the hardcore zombie fans but a fun flick.

Rating – 7/10