Akeelah and the Bee
Akeelah Anderson is is a talented 11 yr girl who can memorize truckloads of spellings in an instant, spell words like prostedigitization or something like that correctly even though she might be hearing it for the first time, and regularly max out scores on scrabble.A natural for the spelling bee contest, u had say. But before u spell out w-i-n-n-e-r, wait!For starters, she does not know that there is a thing like a spelling contest.Added to that, she is a reluctant person who does not like being under the spotlight for she is afraid of failure.And just to make things more interesting, she is parented by a single mother who is having her own difficulties adjusting the work life balance after her husband dies. A recipe perfect for an ugly-duckling-turns-swan kinda movie. Oh but there is one thing missing.What Dumbledore was to Harry, Morrpheus to Neo,Yoda to Luke.Yes!a teacher, a motivator,a guide!Though nowhere as exotic as these guys, what we have here is a UCLA professor who himself was a Bee contest winner but has now retired from the taxing job of managing pesky kids to the more serene hobby of gardening.He sees the potential in Akeelah, and agrees to train her.Our setting is almost complete.Throw in a bunch of other kids (ur typical 'best friend' ur helpful co-competitor' , ur 'i am not here to make friends, i m here to win' smartass kid) and there! its done!lights camera action!
OK! OK, enough of the sarcasm. the movie is quite good actually.Keke Palmer is cute and likable as Akeelah.Laurence Fishburne plays the subdued, grumpy professor with a past to perfection.The screenplay is also smartly crafted out to tug at ur heart strings, and u end up getting involved into the movie, cheering Akeelah and holding ur breath every time she's called on to spell some wickedly difficult word. The movie neither promises nor delivers anything new.It is just one of those movies to watch with ur family, have a good time ,and then forget all about it.
Akeelah Anderson is is a talented 11 yr girl who can memorize truckloads of spellings in an instant, spell words like prostedigitization or something like that correctly even though she might be hearing it for the first time, and regularly max out scores on scrabble.A natural for the spelling bee contest, u had say. But before u spell out w-i-n-n-e-r, wait!For starters, she does not know that there is a thing like a spelling contest.Added to that, she is a reluctant person who does not like being under the spotlight for she is afraid of failure.And just to make things more interesting, she is parented by a single mother who is having her own difficulties adjusting the work life balance after her husband dies. A recipe perfect for an ugly-duckling-turns-swan kinda movie. Oh but there is one thing missing.What Dumbledore was to Harry, Morrpheus to Neo,Yoda to Luke.Yes!a teacher, a motivator,a guide!Though nowhere as exotic as these guys, what we have here is a UCLA professor who himself was a Bee contest winner but has now retired from the taxing job of managing pesky kids to the more serene hobby of gardening.He sees the potential in Akeelah, and agrees to train her.Our setting is almost complete.Throw in a bunch of other kids (ur typical 'best friend' ur helpful co-competitor' , ur 'i am not here to make friends, i m here to win' smartass kid) and there! its done!lights camera action!
OK! OK, enough of the sarcasm. the movie is quite good actually.Keke Palmer is cute and likable as Akeelah.Laurence Fishburne plays the subdued, grumpy professor with a past to perfection.The screenplay is also smartly crafted out to tug at ur heart strings, and u end up getting involved into the movie, cheering Akeelah and holding ur breath every time she's called on to spell some wickedly difficult word. The movie neither promises nor delivers anything new.It is just one of those movies to watch with ur family, have a good time ,and then forget all about it.