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The end result is that the male lead of Beautiful Creatures becomes the 2013 update of Jethro Bodine. I don't know if Alden Ehrenreich doesn't get YouTube or what, but he has no conception of what a southern accent sounds like. I suspect he predicates his entire performance upon Gone with the Wind. Every second he's talking, I am aggravated. And he is in the movie as much as the female lead, if not more.

The weirdest part of the movie is that the witch storyline feels tacked on even though it comprises 75% of Beautiful Creatures. That's how incoherent the story is. Still, I have an easier time excusing incompetent storytelling than I do oddly specific hatemongering. My advice to the people involved with these stories is to ignore the flyover states in your future writing. You have no competence in telling stories involving small town Americana. Worst of all, you seem fine with condemning the entirety of these people, the majority of the populace of this country, as inbred hicks. It's lazy to be so lacking in imagination, a strange but accurate comment regarding this tale of witchcraft.

Finally, World War Z is a white-hot film that features all of the dynamic storytelling that The Walking Dead lacks. The movie delivers more action in two hours than The Walking Dead has managed in three seasons. I do not consider that a hyperbolic statement, either.

For me, World War Z immediately joins 28 Days Later and the remake of The Dawn of the Dead in the Zombie Movie Hall of Fame. I know that there were re-shoots required to fix the ending, which worries some people. What I came to appreciate in watching the film is that the people tasked with creating a new finale cast a critical eye at what they already had. In doing so, they developed a better understanding of the story being told.

Generally, re-shoots are all about damage control. I consider World War Z to be the rare exception where time and distance enabled the filmmakers to craft better ideas for the third act, a harrowing, claustrophobic sequence that enhances ideas sprinkled throughout the earlier portions of the movie. I generally rank my top 10 films of the year predicated upon re-watch value so I am not sure whether World War Z will wind up on my list. At this moment, it has a real chance to make that list. I freakin' loved it.

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