Review of Akeelah and the Bee (2006) by Kelsey S — 04 Jul 2008

There are only a few good things about Akeelah and the Bee. Angela Bassett and Keke Palmer are the main positives, as both give believable performances. Also, Akeelah and the Bee is really sweethearted and cute, even if it does contain a little too much mature content for younger viewers. Last, although it is only a generic inspirational movie, it does have a good message about the importance of bettering yourself. However, all of this can't save the movie from the horribly lazy script. Clearly, writer/director Doug Atchison just watched a whole bunch of inspirational movies instead of writing a script of his very own. So, you will laugh yourself silly during certain scenes that are supposed to be serious. The other bad thing that really stands out is Laurence Fishburne. He looks like he really doesn't want to be there, but that probably wasn't the case, as he was a producer on the film.

In the end this is just another formulaic inspirational movie (in all the bad that entails), but, if you like that sort of thing, it is probably one of the better ones.