Best movie of this year hands down!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

If you had to choose between "Bee Season and "Akeelah and the bee" I strongly recommend Akeelah. The story can be kind of predictable but it was very fun for kids and some adults. There are some jokes which will make you laugh out loud while others will just leave a smile on your face.Laurence Fishburne portrays the role of Dr. Larabee, coach of Akeelah, and he just plays the role very good. The movie can get very exciting at times and it will have you jumping out of your seat shouting at people who can't spell.The only spelling movie that I think can beat Akeelah will have to be spellbound but they're both quite good.

As a libertarian who understands, more or less, the powerful causal factors that work from the outside to keep the down-and-outers down and out, it still does my heart good to recognize that any individual is capable of rising above his circumstances. In the case of Akeelah, the way out is through language. One sees very quickly that not only is the spelling competition mostly about language, the development of superior language skills is mostly about morality. If I had to pick another movie that exemplifies the truth of the previous sentence, it would be Hoop Dreams... also focused on poor black children trying to move ahead through special skills.In Hoop Dreams, more generally than in Akeelah and the Bee, you see how lack of English ability—particularly reading and writing, yet also as one's speech reflects the ability to think clearly—is the crucial determining reason for failure economically......For my complete review of this movie and for other movie and book reviews, please visit my site TheCoffeeCoaster.com.Brian Wright Copyright 2009

I am Chinese who also study English a basically course in China, many years ago I already known from the Locak TV News report there is such a wonderful competition named "National Bee" which happened in US each year, but only got a few of pictures. Today there is the trailer played in Chinese national movie channel which name is "Akeelah and the Bee". I quickly search it online, and watch this movie immediately, what I found in this movie is deeply moved me, I love that black girls, no matter who is the winner in the end, I think almost every bee will do the same difficulties when they prepare the competition, I don't think there is any shortcut to success, but a good method is needed, I really don't want to say any more good for this movie, anyway it is a old movie 3 year ago. But what i thinking about is US, a new country, where the language is from another country-British, but make English as a beautiful art, to enjoy it, to make is more beautiful from children's, not a tool only. This make think about my country-China, which the language names Chinese, a longer history, a complex language system. But no one can dig it deeply, or make such a good competition on TV or stage, I feel shamed about now the Youngers cannot read Chinese clearly, and many many different local languages, and even someone can not write clearly their own native language. Anyway, I love this movie, maybe i wrote a lot of things that without this movie, but it really from my heart, sorry for my English is poor,hey hey

I watched this movie in my English class a couple of days before school ended.On the first day when I watched it,we didn't have enough time to finish it.But I wanted to.Lucky for me,we finished the rest of the movie the next day.This movie was excellent.Keke Palmer does a wonderful job as Akeelah Anderson.Plus,this movie has a great message for teens.I forgot what it was,but I know that there is a good message in this movie.I guess I'll have to watch it again.When Akeelah was spelling the words in the spelling bee,I had no idea if she was going to lose or win,so it was a little suspenseful.Overall,this is a great movie that has Oscar written all over it.