evening1
A moving film that manages to make spelling interesting and even dramatic.Keke Palmer is wonderful as a gifted South Los Angeles 11-year-old who is afraid of appearing smart until she tentatively gets involved in her school's first Spelling Bee.She starts to blossom as she gains a chance to mix with kids from more privileged neighborhoods and is coached by a UCLA English professor (Laurence Fishburne) who forbids the use of street slang. Fishburne helps Akeelah see that people aren't afraid of being not-good-enough -- but of failing to show how great they are.This film beautifully portrays how one person's growth can ripple outward to affect everyone in her family and community.This powerful work has gotten me wondering whether my own pre-teen might benefit from getting involved in the bee!
Brian Wright
As a libertarian who understands, more or less, the powerful causal factors that work from the outside to keep the down-and-outers down and out, it still does my heart good to recognize that any individual is capable of rising above his circumstances. In the case of Akeelah, the way out is through language. One sees very quickly that not only is the spelling competition mostly about language, the development of superior language skills is mostly about morality. If I had to pick another movie that exemplifies the truth of the previous sentence, it would be Hoop Dreams... also focused on poor black children trying to move ahead through special skills.In Hoop Dreams, more generally than in Akeelah and the Bee, you see how lack of English ability—particularly reading and writing, yet also as one's speech reflects the ability to think clearly—is the crucial determining reason for failure economically......For my complete review of this movie and for other movie and book reviews, please visit my site TheCoffeeCoaster.com.Brian Wright Copyright 2009
sheri_l_j
This is one of the best movies I've ever seen. Full of "life" in the real sense. Anyone that believes he/she cannot achieve something/anything should watch this movie....it is filled with Hope, Inspiration & Love and shows that you can get whatever you want through hard work and diligence. Anyone can do anything that they truly believe that can do regardless of your background, family, obstacles, or even the location where you live. All we have to do is believe in ourselves....great movie. Lawrence Fishburn did a very good job as the tutor. Very Inspirational and should be a recommended movie/film for schools everywhere.
Dragoneyed363
At first glance, I was put off by Akeelah and the Bee. It's just that a movie about competitive spelling did not seem to appeal to me, and I really did not care about seeing it, ever. I did not know anyone in the cast either and never heard much about it from others. After my friend, who also thought it would not be that great, watched it and told me they absolutely loved it, I thought about giving it a try. Let me tell you all in my honest opinion, it is not a film you should disregard or think about disregarding so quickly, and it is now one of my favorite movies of all time.The movie is just so wonderfully put together; I adore it. The characters and plot have a nice flow and real feel to them that make the watcher comfortable with everything that happens or where I could even relate to it in some way. It starts off with Akeelah, a young African American girl from Los Angeles, who is shy and unsure of herself around her community. She progresses into having a relationship with her tutor, Dr. Larabee, and grows to become more confident in herself as she practices for the National Spelling Bee.I just could not stop cheering for Keke Palmer's character throughout this movie. She's witty, sassy and lovable in all her charms, and Keke Palmer gives an incredible performance. The rest of the cast are superb, and the movie, like I said, has a nice pace and throws in a lot of twists and subtleties, especially making the viewer feel the sense the writer and director is wanting you to feel strongly, such as melancholiness or joyousness. There is a lot of fun involved in this movie when it comes down to it, no matter how serious it takes itself at times, which everything just works out for the better in terms of how the movie is handled.
AD
