Stung by the Bee

I love words and grammar and language. So I was really excited to see the new spelling bee movie, Akeelah and the Bee. My pal and I drove to Roanoke (about an hour away) this weekend to see it, since it's not showing here in the 'Burg.

We were very disappointed. The movie is, quite simply, terrible. The writing is SO BAD that even great actors like Angela Bassett and Lawrence Fishburn can't make it convincing. It's saccharine and cliched and predictable. It was more like a Disney Channel movie, or an ABC Family Channel movie, than a feature film.

As an example: Akeelah's brother is in trouble (of course) and running with the wrong crowd. But as Akeelah trains for the Bee, the gang leader shows his heart of gold by gathering all his gang cronies around their big pickup truck to help little Akeelah study her spelling words. For serious.

And after the movie, I realized that really the only place I'd heard about Akeelah and the Bee was at Starbucks. They've been doing a huge promotion around the movie. Well as it turns out, Starbucks Entertainment was one of the production companies involved with the movie. Did you know Starbucks even had a movie production company?? I didn't.

If you were thinking of seeing this movie, I suggest renting Spellbound instead. Even if you've already seen it, just rent it and watch it again. Whatever you do, don't give in to the Starbuck's marketing.