Format: DVDChange
Price:$6.59+ Free shipping with Amazon Prime
-
Akeelah and the Bee (Widescreen Edition)
- ›
-
Customer reviews
- Akeelah and the Bee (Widescreen Edition)
- ›
- Customer reviews
Top positive review
Magic Movie
December 27, 2017
My teacher friends call this my magic movie. I have seen rural high school seniors entranced and city-7th graders entranced. A great movie with an amazing message to not be afraid of your own abilities even when it makes you different. Love the diversity and the acting is great. It really is a magic movie!
6 people found this helpful
Top critical review
but the language alone is not something I would like my child exposed to at this point
July 16, 2018
I thought this would be appropriate for a nine year old, but the language alone is not something I would like my child exposed to at this point. She even told me to shut it off after about 15 minutes!
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Showing 1-10 of 1,005 reviews
December 27, 2017
My teacher friends call this my magic movie. I have seen rural high school seniors entranced and city-7th graders entranced. A great movie with an amazing message to not be afraid of your own abilities even when it makes you different. Love the diversity and the acting is great. It really is a magic movie!
August 24, 2015
Ms. Akeelah Anderson was an 11-year-old in the 7th grade, she skipped 2nd grade on merit, at the senescent, squalid Crenshaw Middle School in South Los Angeles. She hated school and was absent whenever she had more important matters to attend to, and she often didn't turn in assigned homework; however, she had never misspelled a word on the hebdomadal spelling test. She had a predilection for vocabulary and played Scrabble on her computer in her phrontistery, incessantly. At her school's inaugural spelling bee, she took 1st place, and she advanced to the Los Angeles District Spelling Bee with 139 contestants. She went up against affluent students from Santa Monica, Woodland Hills, and Beverly Hills. Woodland Hills had a kinship with the Scripps organization, because of the high proportion of aficionados they had sent there. Quite remarkably, she made it all the way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship in Washington D.C. She could have easily slipped through the cracks with her potential and been forgotten if a teacher and principal hadn't taken a special interest in her future.
January 2, 2016
"Akeelah and the Bee" is a superb family movie about a young girl from humble circumstances competing against much wealthier children in spelling bee championship. Most kids movies put sports on a pedestal, this movie is different as it makes kids feel enthusiastic about intellectual pursuits. But just looking at those details would be selling this movie short. Most of all, this is a movie about the human spirit, resiliency and determination. It deals with loss, disappointment, hardship, the importance of finding your way, believing in yourself, focusing and working towards goals and the importance of friendship, family and teachers/mentors. It's a very well written and well acted film that is intelligent, sweet, funny, emotional and inspirational. My two young kids, my wife and I all loved this movie and it never lost either of my kids' -- 7 and 10 -- attention. I strongly recommend this for families with children 13 and under. In fact, it's so good, I recommend it even if you don't have kids.
December 21, 2016
I purchased this movie to watch with a mixed grade level class of high school students in a public speaking class. This was a great choice! The movie demonstrates how being motivated can lead kids to achieve great things. Conversely, it also shows how the pressure to perform from parents and other adults can have negative consequences. This is a feel good movie with an upbeat message and is appropriate for all age levels. I do think the movie perpetuates racial stereotypes, though class discussion about how the film does this can be a teachable moment. Also, much of the plotline will seem quite predictable to adults, though my freshmen and sophomores really liked it. I would recommend this movie as a good film for the classroom and for people of all ages.
March 25, 2016
This is without a doubt, one of THE best family and "feel good" movies of this era. It teaches both adults as well as children to search for the greatness that is within yourself and never allow anyone else to define who you are and who you aren’t. Great storyline, and as usual, Laurence Fishburne gives a wonderful depth and multi-faceted interest to his melancholy-character, UCLA English Professor Dr. Larabee; who mentors Akeelah and sees her to the Nationals. Angela Bassett delivers a very good performance too as Akeelah's Mother Tanya, a widow struggling to provide for her family and keep them safely “in-balance” despite living in a rough community. The huge Blessing you witness in this entire experience is that, in Akeelah’s quest to make it to the Nationals in DC, her entire Community comes together to help her study & properly prepare academically, as well as emotionally support her, in her pursuit of it.
August 29, 2016
My husband and I are still talking about what a great choice this movie was. Our six year old daughter decided to compete in their upcoming school spelling bee, so I decided to show her this movie just to show her why it's important to pronounce the word yourself before you spell it aloud. Little did I know, that was just the beginning for how great this movie would be for everyone. It can be hard to find a movie the whole family can enjoy, but this was definitely a winner! What a wholesome movie with life lessons for both children and adults.
May 7, 2007
I had always thought there were only two possible outcomes to the 'pyramidal' type suspense story-- that is, the type like 'Rocky' or 'The Karate Kid' that takes a central character to an ultimate confrontation, with either an uplifting 'Agony of Defeat' type of climax or a 'Success of Course' type outcome. [The underrated Searching for Bobby Fischer is another excellent example.]
Silly me!
There's at least one more kind of ending possible, and Akeelah and the Bee provides a perfect example of it. I'm sure it will be copied extensively as time rolls forward, but this movie is the first one to feature it, and the surprise is delightful. In other words, it doesn't end the way you think it will, NO MATTER HOW you thought it would!
It's an original story in some other ways as well: (1) It looks at stereotyping from several different angles, not just the standard two or three; (2) the standard 'gruff curmudgeon' authority figure [played by Laurence Fishburne] that is normal fare in these kinds of plots is in this case a very vulnerable person who is willing to let that fact show, and this gives a depth to the story that is usually missing; (3) the 'bad guy' opponent has demons of his own to fight, paralleling in many ways the demon that the protaganist faces. This gives a complexity to the competitions that is almost always missing in this type of story.
The tale revolves around the title character, Akeelah, who lives in southwest Los Angeles, with all of the issues that such a setting implies. She becomes hooked on 'spelling bees,' and in spite of heavy odds against her participation creates for herself the dream of competing in the national championship that is broadcast on ESPN every year. It's no spoiler to say that she does indeed get there, surmounting odds of many kinds. But it *would* be a spoiler to say what happens once she does reach her goal, so I'll remain silent on that point. (Just remember what I said earlier, about there not being only two possible outcomes to such a plot.)
What I won't stay silent about is my enthusiasm for the director, the screenplay, the casting, the editing, and, most of all, the star of this motion picture. And when I say Star I'm not exaggerating. Keke Palmer steals this show, from the first instant she appears. Nor is she merely a very bright child [or very young adult, if you prefer] who can get away with playing herself provided there's an excellent director handy. There IS an excellent director handy, but no way does she play herself, as will become apparent when you watch the extensive interviews with her that are part of the extras in this package.
Since making this movie, she has become quite successful in the music business, as a singer and star of music videos. But in that genre, she is an entirely different person from the character she portrays in this movie, as well as being yet again distinct from the 'real' Keke in the interviews. She's a complex person with a multitude of talents, and the producers of this movie are luckier than they can imagine that they found her for the role. She's PERFECT.
The same can't be said for the motion picture as a whole. For one thing, this type of formulaic plot has become so familiar to us that certain scenes can be 'smelled' long before they show up. [Credit the editors that they cut one such scene out before the movie was released, though it still exists in the extras on the DVD.]
Another problem is that when the 'bad guy' is both a kid and a member of a minority himself, it's hard to stay mad at him for very long, but he does a good job [along with the excellent direction] of keeping the 'bad vibes' flowing as long as he possibly can.
As is true of most really good 'children's movies,' this isn't a movie just for children. There's a lot in it for appreciative adults as well. I recommend it highly, for viewers of all ages.
Silly me!
There's at least one more kind of ending possible, and Akeelah and the Bee provides a perfect example of it. I'm sure it will be copied extensively as time rolls forward, but this movie is the first one to feature it, and the surprise is delightful. In other words, it doesn't end the way you think it will, NO MATTER HOW you thought it would!
It's an original story in some other ways as well: (1) It looks at stereotyping from several different angles, not just the standard two or three; (2) the standard 'gruff curmudgeon' authority figure [played by Laurence Fishburne] that is normal fare in these kinds of plots is in this case a very vulnerable person who is willing to let that fact show, and this gives a depth to the story that is usually missing; (3) the 'bad guy' opponent has demons of his own to fight, paralleling in many ways the demon that the protaganist faces. This gives a complexity to the competitions that is almost always missing in this type of story.
The tale revolves around the title character, Akeelah, who lives in southwest Los Angeles, with all of the issues that such a setting implies. She becomes hooked on 'spelling bees,' and in spite of heavy odds against her participation creates for herself the dream of competing in the national championship that is broadcast on ESPN every year. It's no spoiler to say that she does indeed get there, surmounting odds of many kinds. But it *would* be a spoiler to say what happens once she does reach her goal, so I'll remain silent on that point. (Just remember what I said earlier, about there not being only two possible outcomes to such a plot.)
What I won't stay silent about is my enthusiasm for the director, the screenplay, the casting, the editing, and, most of all, the star of this motion picture. And when I say Star I'm not exaggerating. Keke Palmer steals this show, from the first instant she appears. Nor is she merely a very bright child [or very young adult, if you prefer] who can get away with playing herself provided there's an excellent director handy. There IS an excellent director handy, but no way does she play herself, as will become apparent when you watch the extensive interviews with her that are part of the extras in this package.
Since making this movie, she has become quite successful in the music business, as a singer and star of music videos. But in that genre, she is an entirely different person from the character she portrays in this movie, as well as being yet again distinct from the 'real' Keke in the interviews. She's a complex person with a multitude of talents, and the producers of this movie are luckier than they can imagine that they found her for the role. She's PERFECT.
The same can't be said for the motion picture as a whole. For one thing, this type of formulaic plot has become so familiar to us that certain scenes can be 'smelled' long before they show up. [Credit the editors that they cut one such scene out before the movie was released, though it still exists in the extras on the DVD.]
Another problem is that when the 'bad guy' is both a kid and a member of a minority himself, it's hard to stay mad at him for very long, but he does a good job [along with the excellent direction] of keeping the 'bad vibes' flowing as long as he possibly can.
As is true of most really good 'children's movies,' this isn't a movie just for children. There's a lot in it for appreciative adults as well. I recommend it highly, for viewers of all ages.
January 26, 2019
I watch this with my niece and nephew every chance we get because it has such a wonderful message of friendship, hard work, confidence, and community. Shows how the love of family, friends, and community can motivate a child to accomplish great things. Recommended viewing for the whole family!
