Wasn't quite what I expected and Craig's accent...

i like arliss. i am not surprised he buggled that.

thing is, i don't think accents in this area are heavy... in the sense of being thick or lengthy with drawn out pronunciations. in fact most people here speak very directly, with a speedy pace. many southerners speak very fast. when hollyweird tries to 'fake' a southern accent they must be going by gone withthe wind, lol. but... maybe it never dawned onthem that those were non southern actors portraying southerners lol.

i mean, sometimes you do encounter the drawn out LAWWWWWWNG accent (let's call it the Antebellum Savannah Plantation accent) in the south these days. it does happen. but it's the extreme minority, and with no seeming rhyme or reason as to why it exists in one person and not another. it can even vary within the immediate family. also i've noticed that hill people talk more through the nose, ones from central and north alabama and north GA. (liam neeson did this perfectly in Next Of Kin 1989)

again, some people draw out words in that Antebellum Savannah Plantation drawl, but not many. kevin spacey (for all his accolades) is AWFUL at this. but you can tell he THINKS he is getting it right lol. The two times i have seen him, he failed miserably in both: house of cards, and midnight in the garden of good and evil. (imo craig in knives out was way WORSE than spacey, even)

danny mcbride has a spot on accurate southern accent. listen to his performance in Eastbound & Down. he is from macon ga, though that doesn't mean anything because i have seen many hollywood actors from this area who DONT sound like this area. but he preserved the correct sound.

ray mckinnon (football coach in The Blind Side) always portrays a correct accent IMO. though he easily moves into other roles not from the south, too. he is also from this area originally, and has that same nasally sound i referenced earlier. his voice in The Blind Side is a good sample to reference.

also, i think sandra bulloch did a great job with her accent in The Blind Side. If memory serves, because i only saw that once but i recall thinking that at the time.

burt reynolds was raised in the south, and his natural accent in his earlier movies well represents authenticity imo. gator, longest yard, deliverance. Also, listen to him talk in smokey and the bandit. that's dead on. but sadly i have also seen him later butcher the southern accent horribly, by trying to fake the Antebellum Savannah Plantation. it's beyond me why they can't listen to themselves and HEAR how bad they sound.

the football movie Varsity Blues had an excellent dialect coach, whoever it was. that whole cast did a great job with accents. although, we do not really consider texas southern, but the accents are generally the same.

you know, it's funny to me they would ever get it wrong THESE DAYS with youtube available for free to sample unlimited REAL southerners talking about all sorts of topics. what this tells me is that actors, directors, producers are just too lazy to put in the work. and, i will add, that IMO ignorance is no excuse. if they are pros, they should not be messing up on such an easy target as this.

if i think of some more points i will return to add them. :)