In spite of all the Starbucks hype, I still wanted to see this movie about a poor, little girl from Crenshaw who loves words and grudgingly enters the spelling bee competition and builds self-confidence and community support. Some creations (books, movies, music, painting, sculpture, etc.) take ideas from existing creations and mix it to create something innovative and new. Others just take existing ideas and put it into a new setting to create basically the same thing that's already been done with some slight variation. Unfortunately for Akeelah, it is the latter, not the former. Lawrence Fishburne plays the troubled, spelling bee version of Mr. Miagi to Akeelah's Karate Kid. Wax On, Wax Off, do you not see that in teaching you one thing, you are learning skills that apply to spelling. Angela Bassett plays her mother, but doesn't really seem like a mother (how many ghetto mom's are buff like her?).
Akeelah learns: Family is important, Friendship is important, People want to help, People are basically good, Winning is NOT important but feels good, We can all get along if we really try and a few other lessons that may are may not be true. I did enjoy Eddie Steeples', from "My Name Is Earl", turn as the good-hearted gangsta. Overall, emotions were manipulated and the further I get from watching the film, the less good I find about it. The actual spelling scenes were tense and humorous, but for that fix, I've got the excellent documentary Spellbound.
This movie is like Hamburger Helper. It's nothing that interesting or original, the mixture of spices, flavorings and salt are a little heavy and not nearly subtle enough. It doesn't create anything truly new, it just alters noodles and meat into a slightly different meal and it is basically filler for when you don't have enough time to prepare a real meal. It is prepared food, good enough for family, not what you would serve guests. 5/10
http://blog.myspace.com/locoformovies
Akeelah learns: Family is important, Friendship is important, People want to help, People are basically good, Winning is NOT important but feels good, We can all get along if we really try and a few other lessons that may are may not be true. I did enjoy Eddie Steeples', from "My Name Is Earl", turn as the good-hearted gangsta. Overall, emotions were manipulated and the further I get from watching the film, the less good I find about it. The actual spelling scenes were tense and humorous, but for that fix, I've got the excellent documentary Spellbound.
This movie is like Hamburger Helper. It's nothing that interesting or original, the mixture of spices, flavorings and salt are a little heavy and not nearly subtle enough. It doesn't create anything truly new, it just alters noodles and meat into a slightly different meal and it is basically filler for when you don't have enough time to prepare a real meal. It is prepared food, good enough for family, not what you would serve guests. 5/10
http://blog.myspace.com/locoformovies