HUB Movie Review: Life After Beth
Guess what, people? After we unsuccessfully stopped vampires from coming back to the big screen (Dracula Untold came out last Friday), it is no surprise that zombies will be sticking around this week.
AMC’s original series The Walking Dead just came back for its fifth season a few weeks back, and people are eating it up (pun intended), and movie-goers made Brad Pitt’s World War Z into a blockbuster last year. Yet, despite the fact that zombies are scary, flesh-eating monsters, Hollywood continues to make zombies and humans able to love each other (think Warm Bodies). Behold, Life After Beth (Beth rhymes with Death…get it?).
Life after Beth stars two major up and coming actors, Aubrey Plaza (Parks & Recreation), who plays Beth, and Dane DeHaan (The Amazing Spider-Man 2), who plays Beth’s boyfriend, Zach.
Plotline: Beth and Zach are dating, Beth dies and she comes back as a zombie. Others in the town become zombies too, so the zombie apocalypse…it’s happening!
From the movie, you definitely get some laughs from what is going on, especially Beth’s utterly boring tone and anger about being hungry (for flesh), which Plaza seems to do impeccably well in all her roles (the boring tone, that is). Despite the romantic comedy genre, it’s not that comedic or romantic (you will know what I mean of the latter).
And what do the critics say? No go. Yet, the HUB movie is free so you might as well check it out if you have nothing better to do during this canning weekend. IMDb users averaged it at 5.8, RottenTomatoes critics rated it 46% rotten (which is funny cause zombies have rotten flesh), and Metacritic gave it 50.
On the Penn State Scale...
1—When Penn State loses a game (especially against Michigan!),
2—An 8 a.m class (which are awful),
3—A canceled 8 a.m class,
4—Free textbooks,
5—Free Creamery ice cream for a whole year,
It’s a solid 2.3. It definitely has its chops of good actors and good acting (Anna Kendrick is in it too!); they succeeded in bringing the movie to life (no pun intended), but the story itself had too much going on at times, too much relationship angst, and most of the action was expected.
It is your typical B movie that entertains you while you watch it, but it may not be too memorable unless you dress up like the characters on Halloween, though no one else may get your costume.
But then again, it’s about zombies. The craze is in, so go ahead and take a bite.
Photo Credit: Associated Press
Sofia Westin is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism and economics. To contact her, email sgw5090@psu.edu.
