Mathew Englander (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} mathew5000) wrote,@ 2006-05-12 02:54:00 |
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Akeelah and the Bee
Akeelah and the Bee is a thoroughly enjoyable movie, with a brilliant script and an amazing performance by Keke Palmer as Akeelah. The film belongs to the same genre as The Karate Kid and The Bad News Bears (spelling is close enough to a “sport”, I suppose), but it also brings to mind Searching for Bobby Fisher, not only because Laurence Fishburne is in both movies.
Watching the film I became concerned that the ending would be too obvious, but ultimately I was satisfied. The script is structured cleverly so that short scenes which seem insignificant at the time pay off at the end (albeit with three-second flashbacks that aren’t necessary).
It was nice seeing a super-intelligent 11-year-old girl in a movie who still seemed real.
One of the film’s production companies was Starbucks Entertainment, and Starbucks has been running in-store promotions for the last month or so. The promotion does not seem that well conceived, however; it isn’t always clear that they are trying to advertise a movie. In the film itself I don’t remember any product placements of Starbucks coffee. The only product placement I recall was for Scrabble.
Also I am wondering whether the casting of Curtis Armstrong as the benevolent principal of Akeelah’s school was an intentional allusion to Revenge of the Nerds.
Akeelah and the Bee is a thoroughly enjoyable movie, with a brilliant script and an amazing performance by Keke Palmer as Akeelah. The film belongs to the same genre as The Karate Kid and The Bad News Bears (spelling is close enough to a “sport”, I suppose), but it also brings to mind Searching for Bobby Fisher, not only because Laurence Fishburne is in both movies.
Watching the film I became concerned that the ending would be too obvious, but ultimately I was satisfied. The script is structured cleverly so that short scenes which seem insignificant at the time pay off at the end (albeit with three-second flashbacks that aren’t necessary).
It was nice seeing a super-intelligent 11-year-old girl in a movie who still seemed real.
One of the film’s production companies was Starbucks Entertainment, and Starbucks has been running in-store promotions for the last month or so. The promotion does not seem that well conceived, however; it isn’t always clear that they are trying to advertise a movie. In the film itself I don’t remember any product placements of Starbucks coffee. The only product placement I recall was for Scrabble.
Also I am wondering whether the casting of Curtis Armstrong as the benevolent principal of Akeelah’s school was an intentional allusion to Revenge of the Nerds.
