Not many actors can pull this off, but in the movie Flight, Bruce Greenwood effortlessly pulls off one of the best southern accents I've ever heard. I know this may not mean much to other people, but growing up in the South, hearing his words come out of his mouth was as smooth as butter.
I've actually never seen that, but I know exactly what you mean about recognizing fake southern accents. I'm always impressed when I hear a legit-sounding one, that's consistent throughout the movie (or show, or whatever), and I see that it's someone from outside the south. Like you, it usually takes me hearing about 2-3 words before I can tell the accent is fake. In movies that are set in current times, too many non-southern actors go overboard with the accent, and end up sounding like a fake, colonial-era southerner. While there are still some (few) who have that type of accent, nowadays, even the more "country" accents sound different than that. And overall, the south is slowly losing the accent altogether (at least I've noticed it in Atlanta and Birmingham, where I spend most of my time).
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