Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

evening1 A moving film that manages to make spelling interesting and even dramatic.Keke Palmer is wonderful as a gifted South Los Angeles 11-year-old who is afraid of appearing smart until she tentatively gets involved in her school's first Spelling Bee.She starts to blossom as she gains a chance to mix with kids from more privileged neighborhoods and is coached by a UCLA English professor (Laurence Fishburne) who forbids the use of street slang. Fishburne helps Akeelah see that people aren't afraid of being not-good-enough -- but of failing to show how great they are.This film beautifully portrays how one person's growth can ripple outward to affect everyone in her family and community.This powerful work has gotten me wondering whether my own pre-teen might benefit from getting involved in the bee!

Bassam Abulela This movie is just outstanding, although I'm not an English native speaker, but I really enjoyed that movie so much, and I learned a lot of words also... Akeelah (Keke Palmer) was just amazing and she proved that she's a good actress ! I just remember that scene at the school in the very first competition, when Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne) asked her to pronounce some super tough words and she did it. and also when he taught her how to deconstruct that long Latin word "Soliterraneous"... it was just amazing ! so Akeelah, can you pronounce "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" fast, and tell the definition of it ;)after all, it's really a must see movie, i give it 8/10

blaircam OK, let me say right off the bat that I really enjoyed the movie. It was a lovely story and well told BUT it is incredibly predictable and clichéd. It really feels like a Hallmark special or a midday movie, made for TV type film. It is somewhat reminiscent of Spellbound and has some of the charm but although it makes you feel like it may be based on a true story it just doesn't quite ring true. The clichés - 1. the poor, working class, unappreciated but intelligent minority girl who triumphs over all odds, 2. the hard-working tough-exterior single mum who wants Akeelah to get her head out of the clouds but is eventually won over 3. The brother getting into trouble hooking up with the wrong crowd 4. the brilliant but irascible professorial type who is carrying his own baggage but learns to come to grips with his challenges through the medium of the bright young courageous heroine 5. the cold, heartless driven Asian types who must win at all costs (BTW - a bit racist that) Is there room to squeeze in just one more cliché...??? Well, yes there is - the young, single mum older sister, the geekiness of the other spellers, the early failure only to be saved at the last minute by the disqualification of a cheat... If you took the clichés out of this movie there's be nothing left. I thought Javier was great, Akeelah was stunning, Larabee played a great role, and it was good to see Booger back on the screens - that college education really paid off for him going on to be a school principal.

napierslogs Overall I think Hollywood chose a good premise, and made a very touching, good movie. But they made too many little mistakes. The character of Akeelah was wonderful. I liked every choice they made for her. But they showed no respect for the audience, because outside of Akeelah, all we got were errors in the spelling bee formats, cliché minor story lines, and some truly horrendous, trite dialogue.I found it was in pretty bad taste to get the real-life moderator of the Scripps Spelling Bee but then not show the bee accurately. Basically every part of the movie had flaws to it. Some people will call them little things, but to me they pretty much ruined the movie.If only they cared about making a good movie instead of a Hollywood movie, then this might have been great.