Akeelah and the Bee Movie Review 2006

Inspirational story focuses on 11-year-old Akeelah (Palmer), a vocabulary whiz (thanks to her late father's Scrabble prowess) who doesn't want to be humiliated as a brainiac at her tough South Central L.A. school. But after a couple of spelling bee wins, and the coaching of no-nonsense UCLA English professor Larabee (Fishburne), Akeelah is encouraged to dream big and head for the National Spelling Bee. Bassett plays her overworked widow mom, who has too many other worries to help her daughter (at least at first). Palmer's character is both sweet and determined although the film may seem overly familiar.

Distribution

Lions Gate Entertainment, 2700 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404, Phone: (310)449-9200, Fax: (310)255-3870, URL: http://www.lgf.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Running time 107 minutes.
Originally from United States.

Cast and Crew

Genres

African America, School Daze, Single Parents, Urban Drama, L.A., Dedicated Teachers, Childhood Visions

Screenplay

Doug Atchison

Cast

Laurence "Larry" Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Keke Palmer, Curtis Armstrong, Tzi Ma, Lee Thompson Young

Cinematography

M. David Mullen

Director

Doug Atchison

Music

Aaron Zigman

Other

Glenn Farr, Sharen Davis, Warren Alan Young

Producer

Sid Ganis, Laurence Fishburne, Nancy Hult Ganis, Michael Romersa, Danny Llewelyn, Lions Gate, 2929 Entertainment, Out of the Blue Entertainment, Reactor Films Production, Cinema Gypsy Prods, Starbucks Entertainment